One of my favorite Bible stories is found in the book of John, chapter 20.  It’s the incident when Jesus, after His crucifixion, but before His resurrection, appeared to Thomas, one of the disciples.  You know, Thomas, known forever as “doubting Thomas.’’ 

 Think about this.  Thomas had walked with Jesus through much of His ministry.  He had obviously seen lots of miracles.  He left his former life to follow Jesus and had to have personally witnessed so many incredible things; like the feeding of the five thousand, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the healing of the blind man at the pool at Siloam, and maybe the time when Jesus literally walked on the water at the lake near Capernaum, just to name a few.

          Imagine what that would have been like.  He saw it all!   He was an eye-witness.  If that had happened in 2010, he would have been in demand for interviews on CNN and would probably have a book deal going.  You Tube would be featuring all those stories he was a part of.  Thomas would be famous.  Just because he was there!

          But, in addition to that, Thomas was there when Jesus sat down with the disciples and told them exactly what was going to happen to Him.  He sat across the table from them and described what was going to happen, predicting every part of His coming betrayal, even comforting the disciples in advance.  Thomas got his feet washed by Jesus.  He is bound to have heard Jesus say eventually their grief would turn to joy as He would suffer the cross, but be gloriously brought back to life again.  I suspect Thomas watched the crucifixion all unfold, standing somewhere in the shadows so as not to be detected and arrested himself. 

          So, on the evening of the first day, and all the disciples were together, behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, Thomas was not in the room at the time.  (I wonder why he was not there?) I expect that was not a happy room. (Something like the little side rooms at a funeral home.) 

Jesus walked in and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then He showed them His wounded hands and His side.  Somehow the disciples later found and relayed the message to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!”  So Thomas ran to where the disciples were and fell down on His feet, saying “Praise God, You are alive!”  “Just like you said!”

          Umm, no.  Not so. 

This man Thomas, who had a place in history walking beside the very Son of God Himself, witnessing all He had done and listening to the predictions of Jesus’ death and resurrection…surprisingly said this: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe it.”

It was a week later when the disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was there this time.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came in again and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he looked right at Thomas and said “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and PUT IT INTO MY SIDE.  Stop doubting and believe.”  (John 20:27) (I would have liked to have seen the reaction on Thomas’ face.)

Thomas then said to Him, “My Lord and my God.”

Then Jesus said something I think about a lot.  He said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”

It’s pretty easy for me to make light of Thomas’ faith and understanding of what he had been a part of.  I can denigrate him for having the audacity of popping off and saying “Unless I see the nails…..” “Hey, I gotta put my finger in them, or I’m not going to believe this man.”

I said I think about this a lot, because that’s exactly what I do sometimes.  I want to see it to believe it.  I want instant authenticity.  I see and hear so much that is made up or not real or not verifiable, that I want to know what is real and what is not. 

I’ve never seen Jesus in the flesh.  Oh, I’ve seen Him through a newborn baby’s face or a beautiful sunset or a song or an inspiring painting.  He’s never walked into my room physically and said “Peace be with you” to me. I didn’t get to walk the earth with Him when He was performing His ministry. 

But I believe.  I believe by faith and because of that I am blessed.  I am so blessed!  There are signs all around me, every day, and in every way that He is alive and well and He does bring “peace to me.” I’m not going to walk around saying “Yeah, well, if I don’t get to touch his hands, you want find me believing!”  I’d rather look around and find Him in pretty much everything and everywhere.  He’s there, you know.  I don’t see His hands, but I can see the work of His hands everywhere.  That makes me want to praise Him and declare Him as “My Lord and My God!”  That’s really what worship is. 

I want to be blessed.  He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”   That’s good enough for me.

 Robert

          I don’t know about you, but I need to laugh today.  Last week’s Wholenote was literally filled with prayer requests for people who have trouble right now.  I just don’t know why the enemy attacks our choir with illness and distress.  Someone said to me once, “We need to pray for those who are sick of our choir!”  I think they meant “Those of our choir who are sick,” but you get the point. We have singers who can’t come because they are sick, in need of medical treatment, or have had an operation, or are about to have an operation. 

          There is an old song that goes, “Gloom, despair and agony on me.  Deep dark depression, excessive misery.  If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.  Gloom, despair and agony on me”

          Then there is our economy and the shape our country is in.  If you watch much television, you could get the idea this is not really the greatest country on the face of the earth.  But it is!

          If you read our church budget statements, you’d see that they reflect our economy and the fact that we have lost some “saints” who got promoted on to heaven, who were stable givers to FBC Santa Fe.

          If you read the newspaper (and not many people do anymore) you’d see that good news seldom makes it in print.

          If you watch Fox News or CNN, you can see the bad news scrolled across the bottom of the screen literally as fast as you can read it.  Sometimes faster than I can read it.

          The substance of the Wholenote today is going to be a list of helpful practical suggestions that really work.  Read them, and if even one item causes the corners of your lips to turn slightly upward as if you were going to chuckle, then I have succeeded. 

           THESE THINGS REALLY WORK……

1.          Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetable while you cut.

2.          A mouse trap placed on top of your alarm clock will keep you from hitting the snooze button.

3.          If you have a bad cough, take large dose of laxative.  Trust me, you will not cough.

4.          If you suffer from high blood pressure, simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.  Remember to set a timer.

5.          If you have a problem you can’t fix with a hammer, it’s probably an electrical problem.

6.          You only really need two tools in life-WD 40 and duct tape.  If it doesn’t move and it should, use the WD 40.  If it moves and it shouldn’t, use the duct tape.

 Here are some other really good suggestions.  Start each day by spending time with the Lord and thanking Him for providing for you a home in heaven, a home here on earth, and a hope for tomorrow.  No matter how bad things get, we are still in the top 1% of the world’s population when it comes to blessings.  Someone has said “If you have more than one pair of shoes to wear, you are richer than most of the rest of the world.” 

While much of the world is starving, most of us are thinking about which diet we will try next.  Make up your own song some morning about how God has blessed you.  You don’t have to sing it for anyone else, just the Lord.  If it comes from your heart, He will think it is beautiful.  Some people even have “talking shoes!”

          And last, burst out in laughter in front of someone every once in a while.  They will think one of two things.  Either you have completely gone crazy.  Or you have something or Someone in your life that fills you with joy so much that you have to laugh!

Robert

(The art gracing this post is ‘The Prodigal Son in Modern Life: The Return (1882)’ by James Tissot.)

We are a culture who loves and celebrates winners. No home crowd storms the court in jubilation for losers, risking a $25,000 fine in the process.

Throughout God’s Word, however, you find a contradiction. God loves and celebrates losers. That’s one reason why Jesus was so unpopular with the ‘winners’ of His culture:

All the tax collecters and sinners (i.e., losers) were approaching to listen to Him. And the Pharisees and scribes (i.e., winners) were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!’ – Luke 15.1-2

These verses set the context for three of Jesus’ most well known parables, one of them perhaps His most famous. In these parables we find losers who are:

Lost, but didn’t mean it. (15.4) If you work with sheep enough you know that they don’t know enough. A sheep could easily wander from the herd with no intention of going its own way and then find itself in real danger by separation. The good news is the Good Shepherd knows and loves enough to seek and find the one that is lost.

Lost, but don’t know it. (15.8) In the parable of the lost coin, the coin has no idea of its value. Its value comes from the desire the owner has invested in it. Make no mistake. Your Creator knows how valuable you are to Him whether you know it or not. That’s why He will ‘light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully’ until He finds you.

Lost, but don’t want to be. (15.17) In perhaps Jesus’ most famous parable, we meet a son who disregarded the value his father placed in him and willfully made himself lost. But dining with pigs has a way of bringing one to his senses. Upon his return the son (re)discovered a loving father who was ready, willing, and running to receive him home.

Each of these parables has 3 things in common: a loser, a finder, and a celebration. Whenever the lost is found the angels in heaven rejoice and a father throws a big party. Jesus wanted His listeners to understand that God loves losers.

A concluding word about ‘winners.’ God loves them also. But He expects them to rejoice, too, when the losers come home. Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to 2ten5.

(The photo gracing this post is ‘Faith And Healing‘ by Walter Tatulinski.)

For me, ‘perspective change’ in itself is a neutral, benign thing. Its moral worth is determined by how you use it, by what difference it makes in your life. I wish I could say that the ‘perspective change’ that I’ve experienced these past 7+ years has been all for the better, but I’m not so sure. As an explanation, consider Luke 17.11-19:

Dear God, have pity on me! Help me to see that my only hope is – and has always been – Jesus. Help me, Lord, to be that one who comes back to praise you for my healing and salvation. Help me, Lord! Amen.

For more from Pastor Lee, check out his blog @ 2ten5.

Pat Robertson thinks that the Haitians are suffering because of their centuries-old pact with the devil.

A friend of mine recently received a call from his upset granddaughter.  It seems that someone at her church had informed her that ‘all the Haitians are going to hell.’  Not only was the grade-schooler upset, she was confused.  If they’re all condemned, why were people in her church encouraging others to aid the Haitians?

May I suggest that as an alternative we consider Jesus’ response to two tragedies that His popular culture believed would have been the result of sin?  Luke 13.1-9:

At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  And He responded to them, ”Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they suffered these things?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!  Or those that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you think they were more sinful than all the people who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”

And He told this parable: ”A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

If you read carefully (or not even carefully at all), you’ll notice Jesus did not speak to the reason why the tragedies occurred.  Unlike Mr. Robertson, Jesus did not use the occasion as an opportunity to pronounce demonological judgments, though Jesus is the most qualified person to do so.

Instead, He used the tragedies to point to a greater truth and a potential crisis that would be greater than a puppet governor’s unreasonable and bloody rage, a tower’s failure, or a natural catastrophe – heading into eternity without God’s salvation.

Jesus instructs His listeners that what is more important than any personal comment on the mentioned tragedies is that ‘unless you repent, you will all perish as well!’  According to the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation, Jesus repeated the exhortation to repent word for word.  He then followed the call to repentance with a parable about a horticultural discussion on what to do with a fruitless fig tree.  Apparently, the vineyard worker won over the owner.  Give the fruitless tree one more year.  If then it produces no fruit, he’d get rid of it.

The point of this passage is this:  Jesus knows that tragedies will occur in life regardless of how one explains their cause.  What is most important is not why they happen, but are you ready for when your life ends?  God, as the Vineyard Owner, has provided for us a patient Vineyard Worker whose desire is for no fruitless life to end fruitlessly, but desires for each one of us to repent of our sins, believe in Jesus, and be saved.  Remember this, though.  There is a limit to the Vineyard Owner’s patience.

The crisis in Haiti is one of epic proportions.  A greater crisis, though, would be to go into eternity without Jesus Christ.  Repent, therefore, or you will perish as well.  Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to his blog @ www.2ten5.blogspot.com.

(The picture gracing this post is of St. Luke from a Byzantine manuscript.)

(The art gracing this post is ‘Good Samaritan’ by He Qi, a 2ten5 favorite.)

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. – Romans 5.10

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say whether things on earth or things in heaven.  And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach . . . – Colossians 1.19-22

Thank God that Jesus did not pass me by on the other side.  Yours, Lee

For more from Pastor Lee, go to 2ten5.

If this is who we are, then what should we do?

So here you go:

Well, guess what! Is that not the condition our world is in once again? There is a lot of hopelessness and darkness in our world and in Santa Fe. This is also a place where no one gets too upset about open sin. This is a city that doesn’t really welcome The Light. There is a popular local bumper sticker that expresses it. “Born OK the First Time” it trumpets. If they could only know Jesus, the Light of the World, they wouldn’t feel that way.

Unbelievably, just now, while writing this article, a man from the city has just come to the door to express that once again, there are numerous complaints about our signs that are inviting people to the Living Nativity. What is so dangerous about the story of a little baby born in a manger? That baby was sent by a God who chose to have Him die for us. The danger is from a god who asks his followers to die for him. Now that’s dangerous!

Folks, I believe we are in a culture war. So many of the things we have taken for granted most of our lives are being challenged and belittled. You can be a bystander or you can be a soldier. You can ignore or you can enlist. You can be a part of sharing the Light or you can ignore the notion that it may be getting dark around us.

I hope you are planning to give these next few days your complete attention and commitment. Yes, every member of our music ministry is IMPORTANT! Who knows what year might be the last year we get to tell that life-changing story here in beautiful old Santa Fe……

Merry Chrsistmas,

Robert

This is a hard word. And for this message I only considered four phrases from two verses.

Hearing the Word of God with the intent of listening and obeying is a recurring exhortation in Luke’s gospel. Luke uses it again in 6.27 where Jesus says, ‘But I say to you who listen . . .’ Jesus is not speaking to the simply curious. He is speaking to those who have an open heart willing to learn and obey. To the obedient hearer Jesus says:

Voluntarily extend unconditional godly affection toward those you hate. In the philosophical abstract this command may not seem so difficult. For example, in my mind I can conceive kindness towards a terrorist hiding out in Afghanistan or an atheist shouting epithets from New Zealand. But Jesus’ ethic is not about ambiguous generalities. Its about personal specifics. His command is to love the adulterous wife or the abusive father. His command is love the rebellious child and the insulting employer. His command is to love the one you hate. Part of the genius of this command, of course, is that the more you love your enemy, the more your enemy becomes the one you love.

Love who you hate. Do good to those who hate you. This is completely contrary to the American mindset. We learn early not to get mad but get even. From our first days on the school playground suffering at the whim of the upper class bullies we teach ourselves to wait and look for the right time to pay back in kind. Jesus’ command turns this cultural mindset completely on its head. He does not tell us not to get even. He tells us to do good to those who hate us. It is in this context that we find Luke’s version of the golden rule in v31: ‘Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.’ This negates the payback, the revenge, the eye-for-an-eye mentality.

Jesus’ first listeners placed a higher value on ‘the curse’ as a willful desire for a godly destruction upon others than our more sophisticated culture does. But even for us words mean something. So when people offer the 21st century version of a curse the command still applies. Instead of using words to insult or harm, we must speak words of blessing and kindness. In order for us to obey fully this command, our blessing words must come from a sincere heart of integrity. When we bless those who curse us our words must genuinely reflect our heart’s desire for the other to be blessed.

We must be careful not to contort Jesus’ commands into creating a culture of victims. Jesus is not advocating that we allow the abuser to continue abusing, enable the curser to continue cursing, to open wide our hearts to the enemy’s attack. If you discover yourself to be in an abusive relationship of any kind do all you can to get away from it. Likewise, Jesus’ command to pray for the abuser is not a solicitation to continue as a victim. It is a direction to respond with one of the most powerful instruments available to the Christian warrior: pray - turn the abuser over to God in prayer so that He might bring justice and deliverance to your situation.

These are hard words of command spoken from God Incarnate to the listening heart. The words are hard to hear. They are more difficult to obey. But should they be received with a Christlike desire and with the Spirit’s help these words can change your world, one enemy at a time. Yours, Lee

(For an explanation of the photo gracing this post which is of Jesus going the second mile with a Nazi soldier, go here.)

For more from Pastor Lee go to two10five.