Jesus is not a Zombie Maker!

Mike Hosey, An Elder

We tend to think of the resurrection as an event that happens in the future.  Most of us think of it as something distant – something that is far away in time and in space.  In our minds it is something that happens long after we have already died.  We tend to think of it simply as a dead body being brought back to life.  In fact, it’s that idea of the simple restoration of a dead body that has led many atheists to make fun of the idea of Jesus’ resurrection. It is all the rage now for atheists to depict Jesus as a zombie, or make jokes about a “zombie Easter!"

In reality, Jesus rose from the dead to prove that he had authority to do something miraculous. He wanted to prove that he could change us. Resurrection for people who follow Christ is something so much different than a dead body being reanimated. Resurrection is the process of bringing to life the parts of us that have died to sin. These resurrected parts of us are the true parts of us – the way that God meant for us to be. Encapsulated in that process, is the resurrection of our true physical bodies as well.

Humanity, as it was meant to be, died, and our bodies were ruined with that death, and followed in a death of their own, when sin entered the world through Adam.  But when we submit to Jesus, he does not simply raise an old dead body.  He restores our spirits and gives us a new heart! This is something he promised to the Israelites (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and something that he promises to us as well (2 Corinthians 5:17)! Notice in that 2 Corinthians 5:17 verse that when we are in Christ, we ARE a NEW creation!  It is present tense! And it's not the restoration of the old rotting corpse that we once occupied. It's a NEW body we are given. Ironically, before our resurrection is when we were more like zombies. When we place Jesus at the center of our life, the process of resurrection and restoration begins. The resurrection isn’t a future event, it’s a NOW event that is ongoing.  A process begins the moment we recognize Jesus as lord!   And the more we act on that recognition, the faster and more powerful our resurrection becomes.

Jesus told his followers that he was the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). When we put Jesus at our center, he is the source of our resurrection, but he is also the source of a real life of love, and relationship with God.  The way life is meant to be.

Producing Fruit with Rocket Fuel

Mike Hosey, An Elder

When the Saturn V rocket was built in the 1960s to take Americans to the moon, it was the most powerful rocket in the world.  It still holds that record in 2016.  If you are within a few hundred feet of it at blast off, the heat from the exhaust will kill you. And if you are just out of range of that deadly heat, the sound from it alone has the power to melt concrete and will easily kill you. The reason that the nearest unprotected observation points are over 3 miles away, is that if some catastrophic failure causes all the fuel to explode at once, then one Saturn V rocket has the same explosive power as the first atom bombs.  It took that much power for men to escape the gravity of earth and to live life in space. The fuel on that rocket was liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.  At launch time, those fuels are so cold that it causes ice to form on the skin of the rocket.  That same skin expands, contracts and groans from the temperature differences. The whole thing smokes and puffs like your breath on a cold winter day.  When the scientists and engineers who designed it, and the astronauts who flew it, first saw it fueled up, they commonly described it as a living thing.

Saturn V Rocket

But separate that rocket from that fuel, it becomes dead, powerless, and useless – just a hunk of expensive metal.

And that’s the kind of power that Jesus is talking about in John 15:1-8.  It is there that Jesus describes himself as the vine, and charges his followers to stay “in him.”  If they do, he says, they will produce much fruit, but if they don’t they will become brittle, dead branches that must be trimmed and thrown in the fire.  This is because Jesus, like the vine of a fruit bearing plant supplies them with the nutrition -- the fuel -- they need to live a good and God pleasing life.  It takes a great deal of power to escape the pull of the sinful and inferior life of the world.  If you want to escape that world, and produce the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) then you must stay connected to your source of fuel.

Have You Got a Jesus Gate?

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Gates are everywhere in the world. They're on roads, they're in buildings, they're even in your walls. The electric switch that turns on your light is a gate that regulates the flow of electricity to your appliances. There are even gates in the millions of nerve endings that spiderweb throughout the deepest parts of your body. The gates in those nerve endings let some chemicals freely flow a certain way, and block others from flowing at all.

All these gates exist for the same reason – to keep some things in, or to keep other things out.

Think about the door of your house. That 80 inch by 36 inch portal is the gateway to your home. In fact, you probably keep it locked so that only people who will submit to your authority can enter your house. If someone who is not already a member of your household enters your house through any other “gate” besides the front door, then you have a significant security problem. Imagine, for a moment, that some young man wants to become a part of my family through his relationship with my beautiful daughter, Emily. But instead of coming through my front door, he comes through my daughter's bed room window. It would be safe to assume that such a young man has nefarious intentions – intentions other than a peaceful melding with my family. His entry method is evidence that he plans to steal something that does not belong to him.

Jesus spoke of this in John 10:1-9. Jesus explains that any one who wishes to enter the sheepfold, which in this case is a metaphor for the family of God, must enter through him. And he adds that anyone who enters through some other way is a thief or a robber! What this means on a collective level, is that anyone who tries to meld themselves to the church who has not made Jesus the center of their lives, is someone who is not a shepherd. In fact, this person is someone who is a wolf who wishes to devour the sheep.

But this is also true at an individual level. If anything tries to get into your life that doesn't come through Jesus first, or that is not submitted to Jesus, that thing, or that person, or that whatever, is NOT something that will serve you well. So be sure to check and see if you've got a Jesus gate.  

My Whinese Cat, Roaches, and Jesus

Mike Hosey, An Elder

I paid for a good portion of my college by working in a small town deli/bakery.  Each morning -- around 4am or so -- I would drag myself out of bed and head to the “office.”  That office was a 20 x 20 kitchen in the far corner of an old grocery store.  As you can imagine, it’s dark at that hour.  Whenever I would click on the light switch, the dark would flee as the room became bathed in fluorescence. The light will do that – push out the darkness. But it will do even more. Every morning when I hit the switch, tens of giant roaches (and probably scores of smaller ones) would flee with the darkness.  Undesirables will always flee with the darkness.

Just last night, I became reacquainted with how important light is, and how we need it, as well as how we react to it.  Around 3 am, my Whinese cat was whining to go outside. I drug myself out of bed, and trudged to the dining area. I didn’t want to turn on the light because it might hurt my eyes, since they had been in the dark for a couple of hours.   So I skipped the light switch and plotted a course through the dining area to the back door of the house. I ran right into a hard, shin level, oak dining chair. In my haste to correct my position, and in my anger over my mistake, I took a back step and a side step, and ran into a pile of my hiking gear. The sharp end of a hiking pole caught the top of my naked foot just above the toes and plowed a nice furrow all the way to just below my ankle. When we’re out of the light, we lose sight of important details, obstacles, and usable paths.

Jesus told us that he was the light of the world (John 8:12).  That’s because his life example and his teachings can illuminate our paths. When we keep Jesus first in our life by following his example, many undesirables will flee from us.  When we keep him first, we will see paths that lead to life, wisdom, and peace.  But if we do not put him first in our lives, and continually keep him there, our eyes become accustomed to the dark, and they wince and experience a bit of pain when exposed to the light.  But even worse, we stumble on our paths, harm ourselves on obstacles we should have seen, and travel down paths that seem right, but instead lead us into those very pain inducing obstacles (Proverbs 16:25).

Jesus Shoots Pool with the Pharisees

Mike Hosey, An Elder

To be “behind the 8 ball” is an English idiom that means to be in a difficult, weak, or losing situation. The saying comes from the game of pool. In billiards, when the ball you need to sink or hit cannot be touched without the risk of also hitting the 8 ball, you are in a very difficult situation. This is because if you hit the 8 ball  you can be penalized, and in some versions you forfeit the game to your opponent. On the other hand, if you sink the 8 ball as your final shot, and it goes into the pocket that you call, then you win the game.

Jesus put his detractors behind the 8 ball, ironically, in the 8^th chapter of John (John 8:48-59)! It was there that his opposition (the religious leaders of the day)claimed he had a demon. Of course, he denied that, and

then made a curious statement. He told them that Abraham had longed to see his day, and that Abraham had, in fact, seen it. This befuddled them. “What?!” they cried, “you're not even 50 and Abraham is long dead, how could you have seen him?!” He told them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” In this statement, he made a powerful claim! He claimed he was eternal. He didn't say that “he was.” He didn't say “that he will be.” In essence, he said, “I was, I am now, and I am to come,” (Revelation 1:8). But he did something even more powerful. He claimed to be God! In referring to himself as, “I am,” he was using a name that God the father had frequently used for himself (Exodus 3:14). This kind of claim called for the death penalty (Leviticus 24:16), and the religious leaders, without considering any evidence, sought to carry it out on the spot (John 8:59).

So Jesus put everyone who is unwilling to exercise faith in a difficult spot. To sum up a number of great defenders of the faith from the past, Jesus left us only three possibilities as to who he was (or is): 1) He was either a liar, or 2) a delusional, mentally ill man who had duped and garnered some followers, or 3) he was who he said he was – God in the form of a man.  

Lust is Like a Cigarette Carton . . .

Mike Hosey, An Elder

C.S. Lewis once observed a great defect in a common English figure of speech.  That figure of speech points to the lust of a man when it says of him as he prowls the streets that he “wants a woman.”  Lewis observed, quite precisely, that it is not a woman the man wants.  Instead, he noticed that the man “wants a pleasure for which a woman happens to be the necessary piece of apparatus. How much he cares about the woman as such may be gauged by his attitude to her five minutes after fruition (one does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes).” Lewis was able to see what should be obvious in lust – that it is base and selfish. He also observed that “Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.”  He wasn’t arguing that lust isn’t powerful. Any man (or woman) who has ever succumbed to it can tell you just how gripping it can be. Instead, Lewis argues that there is something far more powerful and satisfying. I can testify to his truth.  I have been married to the same woman for more than 25 years.  I love and desire her more now – by several orders of magnitude – than I ever did when my body was more obliged to the pull of lust. But lust does have one ability more powerful than love.  It has the ability to destroy.  Proverbs 5:1-8 tells us how lust entices us to participate in the thrill of the moment without consideration to cost.  Proverbs 2:16-18 teaches us how it causes us to lose the paths of life. Both teach that lust leads to death.

Lust is always born out of biology. The programming of our biology is to reproduce. But our biology was ruined in the Garden of Eden when mankind chose sin over God. In that moment, our biology became corrupted -- perverted even.  And easily fooled. Our bodies will almost always give in to pleasure or the removal of pain before our spirits do.  But we are to crucify that biology and it's wrong desires (Galatians 5:24).

Unlike lust, love does not come out of biology. It comes out of willful choice. Lust is boorish and instinctual. It arises from the lowest parts of humanity.  Love, on the other hand, arises from intellect, will, and spirit. Consider how God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). One must will oneself to love. If you don’t believe that, wait and see what happens when you have to face hard times with someone you say you love, but for whom you no longer have a feeling or physical attraction.

Lust is always a reaction.  Love is always an action.  Choose love.

SHE SAID WHAAAAAT? -- 3 Antidotes for the Poison of Gossip

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Gossip is like a poison that kills relationships. Although there are many kinds of gossip, its most basic form appears when people share either sensitive, untrue, or unconfirmed information with others who should not be privy to it. It is born from many other sins, or dark conditions of the heart. But unfortunately, we often depict it as a lesser sin. It is not uncommon to see gossip portrayed in a humorous light. Perhaps you've seen in films, television productions, or pictures the stereotypical depiction of gossipy old church ladies spreading rumors among the flock. We tend to love these mythical images, smile at their little sin, and see it as the lesser of many troubles.

But this is not how Paul saw it. Paul saw it as quite evil. In fact, he places it right next to sins like murder, hatefulness toward God, ruthlessness, faithlessness, and heartlessness (Romans 1:29-32).

This might be because gossip sours the fellowship that God desires for his people. That fellowship was illustrated in how the early church (Acts 2:42) loved each other, and meshed as a supernatural family. It is expressed by Paul in his letter to the Philippians (Philippians 2:1-2) where he implores that church to demonstrate such fellowship by being united in the same love, mind and spirit.

But gossip gets in the way of that spirit. It spreads strife, and it breaks up friends (Proverbs 16:28). Gossip is almost always born out of envy, or pride, or wrath. When people gossip, they are often either consciously or subconsciously trying to lift themselves up from a life of discontent, get at someone, or obtain some kind of glory for themselves. When people act on information they've received through gossip, people sometimes get hurt.

Here are a few ways to stop such an evil:

Don't Receive It! (Proverbs 26:20). If you receive information from others that you don't have a reason to know, then you throw wood on the gossip fire. But if you tell the gossiper to stop, then you take a log off the fire, and at least one tongue of flame ends at your firewall. Plus you have the added benefit of possibly causing the gossiper to question their own motives.

Remember the Golden Rule! (Luke 6:31). You would not want others to gossip about you. Put yourself in the place of the person who is the subject of gossip and have empathy for their plight. And consider that if someone is gossiping to you, they'll probably also gossip about you.

Strive for TRUE Spirituality! (James 1:26, Psalm 34:13, Luke 6:45). Our tongues are as much a part of our spirituality as anything else – sometimes more so. It is, after all, out of the heart that the mouth speaks!