Meditation: Brood of Vipers

I'm on a roll tonight, LORD. Baby needs new shoes.

Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers." Why?

Because He loves us, and
Because we are.

A healer, to heal, doesn't say: "it's okay, everything will be fine" when you have cancer. No: it's "You have cancer. We need to operate, now, to remove the tumor. Then we have a strict regimen of chemotherapy to ensure the cancer is removed and stays in remission. That's what a healer says to heal. Jesus didn't say "Everything is good; it's okay, keep doing what you are doing, and I'm sure it'll turn out okay in the end." No. He said we will be separated, wheat from chaff, and we will be cast into the fires of Gehenna, the trash pit fire that burns without end, where we will wail and gnash our teeth. He also told us the cure in the Ten Commandments and then the Beatitudes. And we still don't get it. He had to scold His own disciples: 'Unless you become like these [a little child], you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

And we still don't get it.

Jesus loves us, and He wants us to be happy, and we can't be happen when we hurt each other and ourselves.

I had a conversation totday with Mr. Sh. He told me that back in India, a family named their son 'Satan.' He asked me, 'Have you ever seen an exorcism?' I said, 'No.' I asked him if he knew why Satan wasn't present in the world as before with possessions and the like. He said, 'no.' I said that it was because, now, Satan doesn't need to be present in the world anymore. We, by ourselves, in all the evil we do today, are going straight down the path to hell without any prompting from him. And we call evil 'good': 'my preferences,' 'my rights,' 'a woman's choice,' 'me-time,' 'my needs,' 'it doesn't hurt anybody.'

All this.

And Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees a "Brood of Vipers" because they were doing what they thought was good and right: leading the Jews through a difficult Roman occupancy.

What would Jesus say to us, today?

Save us, LORD, from the Evil One. Save us, LORD, from ourselves.

I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen.

Meditation: Cast your worry on Him because He loves you, 1 Peter 5:7

So, Mr. Sh. and I were walking along during lunch break, and he asked me if I were worried about losing my job.

"No," I said, "not really. This is God's problem, so I told Him to fix it, or else I'll just have to go up to heaven and kick His ..." Yeah. That.

Mr. Sh. burst out laughing at my effrontery to God, but I see it differently. I see it like this.

God is bigger than the Boogie man. God is bigger than my problems. God is bigger than me.

Jesus told me (personally) not to worry about what the morrow will bring, what I shall eat, what clothes I shall wear. God cares about every bird that falls from the sky, and so, would He not care for me so much more, His child?

So, I can take Jesus at His word (for He is The Word), or I can solve all my problems on my own, because I'm bigger than God, and I don't need God in my life to solve my problems, nor to help me solve my problems, or anything. God's up there, and He's not welcome, not allowed down here anymore.

That's effrontery.

That we say: God is fine enough on His own, or He doesn't exist (only God can say that), or He is not allowed in our affairs and in our concerns.

Like we can put boundaries around Him? And we're fine with that?

No, it's my respect for God that has me dare to say: "Hey, look, God! We got a family to feed here and it's frikken Christmas, now get to work, 'cause Thine be the Glory."

You want proof?

Jacob didn't serve the Angel tea and crumpets. He wrestled with him all night long, and only quit after the Angel broke his leg, and because Jacob had the gumption to do this, to wrestle with God's messenger (angel), the, okay, get this: the angel blessed him!

God has blessed me with so much for so long, and I know one thing about myself: I'm really good at writing code, but I suck at just about everything else, and if I don't ask for, no: demand, God's help, then I will royally screw it up, and 'it' is not just me and my life, but so many other people's lives I affect.

AND I'm totally fine with getting on my knees and begging.

God, please, please, please, please, please, please, please! help me. I need to be all the things You need me to be, and I don't have the strength to do this on my own. I need to be a daddy my little girls faces shine when they see me. I need to be a rock of tenderness my wife can have not one question in her mind about, no: that she can lean on, trust, and know that she can rely on me to screw up, but to get up again, and try again, and fail again, and keep fighting, every day, for her, for my little girls, for ... for everything, for our happiness.

And our hearts are restless until they rest in You.

I rest my heart in You, LORD. Take my heart, set it ablaze, enkindling it with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and let's rock this town and this Christmas, huh, LORD?

I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen