What Do We Really Want?--by Linden Malki

Life is full of choices--even when it doesn't look like it.   In the chaos of World War II, French writer Albert Camus wrote that the first question we must ask is if we really want to live. His philosophy of life was not Christian, but is one that we see in our current world. He does conclude that one does need to choose to live, even if it seems absurd. This brings us to the question that Jesus asked a sick man who had been hanging out at the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years.  Apparently he had been taken care of enough to be there every day, and been given  food, but nobody had cared enough to wait with him for the water to be stirred into what was believed to be a healing mode. When Jesus asked if he really wanted to be healed, his response was "I can't..."  Jesus response to that was simple: "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"   There is a very similar story in Acts 3, when Peter and John were in the same area on the same day of the week, saw a lame beggar at the gate of the Temple, and

told him the same thing, only with one addition: "We don't have money, but this is what we do have: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" And the same thing happened, again with one addition, Peter took him by the hand and helped him to stand. And the next thing everybody saw was the lame man not just walking, but dancing and praising God.  And the same thing happened next: Temple authorities came and made a fuss about someone being healed on the Sabbath.

The man healed by Jesus didn't know who he was--this was at the beginning of his ministry--but as soon as he found out, he scurried to the authorities and pushed the "blame" onto Jesus. Peter and John, in similar circumstance, made no question about where their power came from,  stood up to the crowd and preached about Jesus and His resurrection. When the Temple guards arrived, they were jailed for the night and brought up to the Sanhedrin the next day. The temple authorities had been astonished by Jesus at 12, worried by Him 20 years later, and then found out that He wasn't finished with them yet.  Another 30 years later, they coudn't figure out what to do with Jesus' brother James and his growing fellowship, and pitched him off the Temple parapet. In less than ten years, the Temple itself was destroyed.

Two thousand years later, the world still hasn't figured out how to deal with Jesus and His people. There are still those who are trying to figure out why they're on this earth and what to do next, and those who know who created them, whose Hands they are in, and know that we don't need to know anything except Whose we are, and what we are called to do in His name.
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Evil is real--but God is stronger!--by Linden Malki

There is an advantage to knowing that there is an Adversary to our Lord God. We can't help noticing that we human beings are a long ways from the good we are created for, but the understanding that we are not the only character in this struggle helps us deal with our shortcomings. If we were to believe that we are totally responsible for all the sins and failures of the whole world, this would be unbearable. Knowing that we have an ally in the heavens, even with an enemy prowling around,
helps us realize that we can overcome the evil we would otherwise think we are destined to live with. We can separate ourselves from temptation and disaster--even when it happens, we are reminded that "all things work together for good for those who have been called according to His purpose." It may take longer than we want, and take us places we'd never expect, but we will be given strength when we ask in His will, and in the long run--we know we will be with Him.

There are two things that we need to know about evil: how to recognize it, and that we are not without a way to deal with it.  At one time, there was someone in the life of my family that was very destructive, and one of my inlaws commented that this same person was not good to be around because he left everyone with a bad attitude. I realized that if other people were reacting this way, it wasn't us, it was the person who set everybody else off.  So I began really looking at what was going on, and realized that there was something evil about the way this person was behaving and interacting with others. I began deliberately praying specifically about this person's attitude, and for removal of the evil influences that were putting us on edge. Eventually, the situation did change, and he became much more pleasant to deal with. He was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer and as it turned out, he only had four months left. He did ask forgiveness from the family and also was restored in his relationship with God.  There are still loose ends that I would wish to see cleared up, but the darkness in the situation is gone. I also found out that specifically praying for my family also made our life much smoother and happier--even through some really major difficult situations.  It's not that bad things don't happen, but when they do, they usually work out, and we survive the pain better than we expect.

We have seen in the past 20 years the miraculous survival of our church, through a massive attack of evil. Our sanctuary fire was in October 1999, and when we discovered that our insurance carrier had been thrown into liquidation by the events of 9/11, it was very scary. We did rebuild, we did survive, but in the teeth of a major recession that saw many of our stronger members forced to move away, the financial collapse of our on-campus school, and a financial situation that led us to spend 5 years in a temporary location while leasing out our campus. We were led back to our spiritual home, and were approached by Sandals Church offering to merge and restore our original dreams. Satan tried to shut us down, but didn't succeed--and we are now stronger and enabled to reach out to our community in new and better ways. My reaction when the problems of our rebuild looked their worst, was that we needed to demonstrate God's ability to hold us up in the very teeth of Satan.

ONE on one--by Linden Malki

It is amazing how many people Jesus dealt with one on one; all different people in different situations. We see this in all the Gospels; in John in the first few chapters we see Him spending an evening with Nicodemus, a good Jew who knew his scriptures well and was trying to figure out how Jesus fit into God's plan for his people. We see him back in the story at the end of Jesus' life, assisting Joseph of Arimathea with His burial.
Next chapter we find him spending several days in Samaria, of all places that Jews didn't normally go. We see Him talking to a woman (not normal behavior for a good Jewish man) who appears to be

an outcast in her village but familiar with her own religious heritage as well as His. This led to her bringing the whole town out to meet Jesus, and He spent several days there with them, to the amazement of His disciples. There was a payoff here as well--after the death and Resurrection of Jesus, when the Jerusalem Jews were persecuting His followers,  one of the places they fled to was Samaria. They were welcomed in Samaria, and had a good response to their preaching, probably a result of the time Jesus had spent there.
Back home at Capernaum, even with a literal houseful of people, Jesus again dealt with an individual--the man on the mat that was lowered through the roof. The only record we have of what Jesus taught at that time is his conversation with the man on the mat and the resulting conversations with the Jewish authorities. We see this over and over--a wide variety of people, from a wide variety of backgrounds, some Jews and an amazing number who were not. Jesus visited a variety of neighboring areas, and interacted with all sorts of people, rich, poor, crazy, desperate parents and friends, even a criminal on the cross next to Him.
We see this pattern again--not only are the disciples talking and healing,  but when the young Jerusalem church appoints deacons to serve the growing fellowship and we see these men--and women--themselves reaching out;  Stephen arrested and stoned, but also Philip meeting and baptising an Ethopian visitor; Priscilla and Aquila mentoring Apollos and others; and Paul, in Romans 16 mentioning a variety of people serving in the local church.
What can we learn from this? There is a place for people to serve both in the church fellowship, and as individuals. We can mentor each other in community groups; we can serve those who participate in the church activities, and we can watch for opportunities to reach out to individuals. This can be telling our stories to those who need to hear it, but also being open to listen to people. We're going to get a variety of responses; some of them aren't going to listen, some are going to argue with us, and some are going to respond, but not always when we'd like. We are responsible for what we say; it is God who is responsible for the response.

Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas!---by Linden Malki

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas..many churches celebrate the Wise Men's visit bringing gifts to the Christ Child. In many countries, this is the day that gifts are given and received; but the underlying miracle is that God gave mankind the gift of His Son.  The gifts that are mentioned in Matthew 2 are gold, frankincense and myrrh. Traditionally, the three gifts each have a spiritual and symbolic meaning: gold for a king, frankincense for worship of God, and myrrh, an oil used for medicine and also embalming, as a reminder of mortality.  They have become associated with having been three astrologers or astronomers from Persia, although there are several traditions as to their identity.  They have been identified as Balthasar, the youngest with frankincense and represents Africa;  Caspar (or Gaspar), middle-aged, with gold and representing Asia; and Melchior, oldest, with myrrh and representing Europe.  One tradition is that they stayed in the region, and were buried somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean area.  St Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine in the 300's, is said to have found their bodies when she was searching for relics of the time of Jesus, and  brought them to Constantinople. They were then moved to Milan in 344, and then to Cologne, Germany by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1164, where they are housed in the Shrine of the Three Kings.

The one hint we have in the Gospel of Matthew is that they were "from the east" and had seen a star that they believed was associated with the birth of a king in Judea. The Parthian empire of that period included Persia, and the primary religion of the area was Zoroastrian, and which was known to have beliefs in a star that predicted such a birth. There have been several suggestions of what it could have been; one possibility is a comet, one is an unusually close conjunction of several planets, one is a possible supernova.

There are other legends of their backgrounds and eventual fates; there is  tradition claiming that they were from Arabia, Persia and India, and that there is a legend of one of them having traveled on the ancient silk road in Pakistan on his way to Bethlehem.  Marco Polo tells of having been shown three tombs south of Tehran in the 1270's, and there is a legend that one of them was an ancestor of the known Christian mother of Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor.

What I find significant is that at the very beginning of Jesus' earthly life we find a connection with prominent characters totally outside of the Jewish tradition and community.  He was sent at a time when there was extensive trade and communication with amazingly extensive political connections, and we see later that Jesus was open throughout his life and ministry to people of other nationalities. When the Gospel was preached, it spread and became an international community. His last words were a command to go to all nations, which is still our challenge!