Truth and Consequences--by Linden Malki

Everything we say is a witness! If it were always truth, we wouldn't even need to say most of it. Things that are openly true and obvious are unfortunately not as common as they ought to be, and do need to be affirmed. There are a number of kinds of statements we say, and some of them are true. Some we think are true, some we want to be true but don't know if they are, some we want to be true but do know that they are not, some we are afraid that they are true but hope they are not.

God is always true, but He created us with our own will.  He knew that sooner or later we would guess wrong. God told Adam that there was only one thing forbidden: the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the center of the garden. As far as we can tell, when Eve was added to the mix, she was told about the Tree and the death penalty that was its fruit. Humans were not the only creature made with the capacity for choice; apparently angels were also free creatures; and there was one in the Garden waiting...

We know that story, and the result. They didn't die on the spot, but death became the fate of humanity. God, who cannot lie, confronted Cain with a judgment on his offering, and Cain, foreshadowing our subsquent history, took out his anger on his brother and tried to deflect the blame. We recognize this tactic; I suspect that every one of us, whether or not we would fall into the temptation that Cain did, can understand what was going on in his mind and heart.

This, then, is the world we live in. We are constantly confronted with questions, some of which are obvious and some not. We are constantly asked to bear witness to something we are supposed to know about.  There is always two parts to this: how much do we actually know, and how much are we willing to tell. This sounds simple, but it isn't; we may think we know about something and

actually be ignorant or misinformed. We then have the second choice: what do we tell?  How many factors are there in what we do or do not actually know, and then how willing are we to answer or not? Our actual knowledge is somewhere between zero and total truth; our willingness to tell is also somewhere from "I know nothinggg" and writing a book on it.

In the context of the commandment, the factors become "If you are My disciples, you will know the truth.." which is  "I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me." Following this, then, leads back to "...and the Truth shall make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:32-36; 14:6)

Watch what you wish for--by Linden Malki

There is a traditional listing  referred to as "The Seven Deadly Sins", that is a checklist of traps that we can fall into to the detriment of our relationships to God and others.  "Covetousness"  actually relates to two similar issues; includes Envy, and might be called Greed with a twist.  The key here is that the point is something that we want, which derives its poison from the fact that somebody else has it and we don't.  If we do manage to acquire it, it keeps its value through the observation that other people also want it. It's the grass on the other side of the fence that gets its attraction from the existence of the fence and which side of it that we're on. It relates to Gluttony at the point when we want more than it good for us.  In relationships, it gains spice from Lust, when the attraction is the fact that the target is in a relationship with someone else, and often loses the attraction when you actually pry them loose and then lose interest. Anger comes into the picture when whatever you covet isn't available because somebody else won't let you have it; and the main trap is Pride, which involves a feeling of entitlement that isn't based on anything earned.

The biggest rat in the trap is that all of these things are just that: things that have no value other than the worldly value we put on them.  One of the classic definitions is that all these things interfere with recognition of the grace of God. They are all part of life on the level of the world, where we don't see anything beyond our own physical sight. It's interesting that the Commandments that we are studying were given to us, not something that came out of a human mind, and they go back thousands of years--and we can see their relevance today, and in every area of life and history.  God, it appears, has a greater faith in what we can do with his help than we usually do. We often hear people excuse their bad behavior with something like "I'm only human", or "Boys will be boys", or "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it." In a human sense, there are all true! But we are commanded by God to rise to a point that we can't reach on our own. Once we allow God to reach down to us, we find that we are closer to each other as well.

What God requires is easy to summarize but not possible for us on our own ability.  "So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being."  (Deuteronomy 10:12-13), and a thousand years later,  Micah reminds us "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8) . Jesus tells us “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40) We are being challenged in the next few weeks to look closely at the ancient law, that is still as true as ever.

What Image do we reflect to the World? by Linden Malki

Reflections attract our attention; we are drawn to an image of ourselves and almost always stop a moment and check out the image.   What do we see in our image?  We normally look for mussed hair and clothes; for unwanted spots and stains on our clothes and face, the shapes of our face and bodies, and how closely the image we see matches the image in our head and memory.

The image that we see usually shows more than we expect, and often more than we want. Even if our faces and bodies give away very little about us, that in itself shows that we are closed off and very possibly hiding our true selves.  We can tell if we look stressed, confident, worried, afraid. clueless, happy, naive, serious, miserable, silly and more--and all these are noticeable on most facial structures. People tend to react to us depending on these expressions, and their judgments and expectations go along with it.

It's not surprising that Jesus was recognized as someone special, based on his attitude and spirit; after interviewing Jesus even Pilate, known for his authoritarian attitude, ordered the placard on the cross to read "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."  Even on the cross in his last minutes, Jesus is described by a hardbitten Roman soldier as "Surely this is a righteous man."  We read in Acts 6 and 7 that Stephen, speaking to mobs who were ready to kill him, is described as seeing Stephen's face  "as like the face of an angel", and as the rocks were flying, they saw Stephen looking up into heaven and seeing the Glory of God.  Back in Exodus, Moses is described as having a face that reflected the glory of God.

Over the years, the church has been blessed with men and women who have been recognized as showing a  strong relationship with God. There may have been people we have known who have looked and acted differently than the average human being. As Christ-followers, we are called and have available a special relationship with God through Jesus, the ability to relate through the Spirit with each other, and to live in harmony in this world as well as the next.  We should be recognizeable as His people, with His Spirit, living on a level that is noticeably different from those who do not know God. 

Seeking God's Truth about Ourselves--by Linden Malki

One way to look at people is in three types, and they are subject to change with time and understanding. There are people who know nothing about God (or don't want to deal with Him). This is another situation for another day. The people who do know God in some way have one of the two basic attitudes Jesus describes in Luke 18.  They are both concerned with their relationship with God.

One is the professional "good person". The ones Jesus had the most hassle from in His day were those who were very pious, which in Hebrew were referred to as Pharisees. They made a point of studying Scripture, and being experts on what they believed God wanted. We still see this today; people who take seriously what they believe God requires. They also believe in telling everybody around them what that is, and how careful they are to be perfect. Literally they are often right, but there are some important ideas that they've missed. The Pharisee in Jesus' parable is convinced that he is right about everything, down to the most minute of details. He is also convinced that God should appreciate and reward him for being such a good,conscientious person--especially in contrast to other people who are not perfect. I've known people who don't see why they need a Savior--they're fine, don't steal from people or beat their wives. (The kids maybe, need a good lesson every now and then.) And the neighbors--pretty hopeless.

The other person, the one that the Pharisee looked down his nose and judged, was not perfect. One

difference is that he knew he was off track and needed help to get back on. Another difference is that he didn't tell God how "good" he was; he confessed that he was aware of his sinfulness.  It's also probable that another difference between the two men is that one didn't appear to let God get a word in edgewise, and the other one said little and listened much. God already knows what you do (or not); you don't need to remind Him. If you keep your heart open and your mouth closed, God just might surprise you!

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.