Category: Bible (Page 71 of 423)

On a recent trip to Albania I worked with a team of American professors who lectured on university campuses. In conjunction with the local campus ministry (including line dancing with the students), we built connections on campus. It was a wonderful and encouraging time. But Albania has not always been a country open to Christian professors and dancing students.

After World War 2, Enver Hoxha founded the communist state of Albania. Hoxha launched a widespread campaign targeting religious clergy of various faiths, resulting in public persecution and executions. Religious properties underwent nationalization, coinciding with the closure or destruction of churches and mosques. This culminated in 1976, when Albania became the world’s first constitutionally atheist state. Under this regime, citizens were forced to renounce their religious beliefs, adopt a secular way of life, and embrace socialist ideology.

During these religious purges members of churches and mosques were forced to tear down their own houses of worship. If anyone protested, or complained, or even showed remorse, they were taken away for questioning, some never to return. Imagine being forced to destroy centers of worship, of burials and baptisms, of weeping and rejoicing and neighborly connection. Cruelty marked Hoxha’s regime.

But in the early 1990’s the walls of communism fell across Eastern Europe, Albania’s among them. Today churches and mosques dot the capital of Tirana, all rebuilt in the last 30 years. When the government collapsed only a handful of believers were left, but a generation later thousands and thousands follow Jesus.

Walls crumble and faith rushes in. Today over 100 Albanian staff work with our organization alone. Many more faithful believers serve the Lord in other capacities. Every one of these men and women would have been imprisoned for their faith just a few short years ago.

Psalm 24:1 states, The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who move upon it.

No boundaries exist that permanently withstand the movement of God. Today North Korea maintains walls against the news of Jesus, as well as various Muslim lands. We also know friends and family members with bricked-up hearts. But these barriers are far less stable than their builders realize.

There are no lost causes with the Lord. My time in Albania has me praying for what I consider lost causes and lost people. Who or what comes to mind when you think of a lost cause? Perhaps it’s worth lifting them up to the Lord again, appealing to the one who breaks down walls.

Psalm 24:1

Photo by Denis Ismailaj

Ever wanted to get someone back? One rainy day while escorting a group of prospective students and parents around the University of Missouri (I worked as a tour guide at Mizzou), a driver swerved towards a large puddle and nailed our group. Furious, drenched, and sharing colorful language not included in the regular tour, I hankered for a piece of that knucklehead.

Jesus and his disciples were refused entry into a Samaritan village. James and John (aptly nicknamed the Sons of Thunder) asked Jesus, Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up? Jesus rebuked them—surely wondering at their thick-headedness—and headed down the road.

James and John savored the power they witnessed in Jesus. They experienced a storm turned off, diseases healed, limbs knit together, demons sent screaming, Pharisees put in their place, and a young girl restored to life. They itched to fire that gun for themselves.

Like James and John, I too would like the fire of heaven available on a whim. A vehicle at Mizzou would have exploded back in the day.

But I fail to grasp the reason for such power. Not to punish, but to seek and save the lost. Jesus chose the metaphor of a Good Samaritan to help his followers understand this very point—James and John and myself in particular.

Jesus came to rescue, not to disfigure. To invoke his name in wanton displays of power, or to take the authority from others that is rightfully theirs is to use his name in vain. On the other hand, bringing his message of salvation honors Jesus and releases his power for its intended purposes.

Luke 9:51-56

Photo by Josep Castells

Jesus calmed a raging storm with a word. His disciples sat in the boat terrified and amazed.

Jesus healed a man long possessed by demons and a menace to his neighbors. As the now gentle man sat at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, a great wave of fear swept over the people of the region. So much so they begged Jesus to leave.

Jesus entered the home of Jairus to raise his young daughter from the dead. The crowd of mourners laughed at Jesus because they knew she had died. Their laughter passed away when the girl walked out of her room.

Some folks laugh at Jesus, while others ignore or refuse to even consider Jesus. But you might as well shut your eyes to a tornado.

Better to follow the example of his disciples, sit with terror and amazement, and wonder what he might do next.

Luke 8

Photo by Nikolas Noonan

I always wanted to dunk a basketball. Unfortunately, my hops never matched my hopes. Unless I used a trampoline, the best I could do was a lay-up. Dunking proved too difficult, far beyond my capability. But an NBA center? They dunk all day, barely leaving the floor. With the right ability what’s impossible to most of us proves easy for others.

Even more so with Jesus. Listening to him teach on a Sabbath day, a gang of religious leaders waited to pounce. They wondered if Jesus would heal a man with a withered hand sitting in their midst. Jesus knew their thoughts (did he read their minds or was it just obvious on their faces?).

Jesus called the man over, then turned to the leaders. Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored.

Healing represented work according to Jewish rules, and these leaders were upset that Jesus worked on the Sabbath. But healing a crippled hand was no effort for the Lord of the Universe. It’s more work for you or me to walk to the refrigerator and open the door. It was ridiculously easy for Jesus to heal. More siesta than sweat.

But the religious leaders saw Jesus as worse than a Sabbath breaker. He represented a threat to their hold on society, their grip on power. And in this they were correct. Earlier Jesus taught that the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. He came to upend the religious edifices keeping men and women from God, and to draw all people to himself.

Healing for Jesus? Easy. Dying on the cross for our sins? Much more difficult. But Jesus accomplished this for you and me as well. Should we turn our hearts to this amazing God? That’s a slam dunk.

Luke 6:5-11

Photo by Tom Briskey