John the Baptist, a BiC pen and my wife

This week my pen died.  I love pens and pencils.  I have pens that are used for calligraphy.  I have rather nice Cross pens and more promotional pens than I care to mention.  But this week my favorite pen died.  I would like to be like that pen.  Let me explain why.  The pen is a BiC Cristal and one of the most popular pens in the world.  BiC has produced 100 of Billions of these pens since its introduction in the 1950s.  This pen, often called “The BiC Pen”, put ballpoint pens on the map.  It revolutionized writing with ink.  Marcel Bich purchased the patent for the ballpoint pen and then developed ink with a viscosity that would neither run around nor clog the 1 mm ball.  Instead it went from pen to paper with amazing consistency.  The design was a work of practical genius.  Hard working, consistent, faithful, useful, low maintenance, inexpensive and giving itself completely to its task.  As you can see in the picture this pen gave its all in my service.    There is no ink saved back for its self.  It has put everything it had on the paper.

Well Done Good and Faithful Pen

I hate pens that write sporadically.  If I have a pen and I have to scribble on the margins to get the ink to flow I break the pen in half and toss it out.   Pens that leak ink I also hate.  There should be a law that if a manufacturer’s pen leaks on to my dress shirt they ought to be liable.  If I use a promotional pen and it gives me trouble I make a note to not do business with that company if I can avoid it.  I love my Sharpies and I have a Cross pen on my desk right now.  But in the morning when I write in my journal I will grab my next BiC Cristal, and I am hoping for Christmas to get a pack of these in the stocking.  Société BiC are you listening?

I want to be like this pen.  When my days on earth are done I hope that my Master will find me as faithful as this simple pen.  I hope that the Lord of the entire Universe will look on the spent life that was mine and say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”  This week as we prepare for Christmas, Christians have traditionally looked at those who have been messengers of the good news.  From the prophets of old to John the Baptist to the Apostles we take a moment to thank God for their faithful witness of the light of the world.  Can I be a faithful witness?  Can I look forward to that day as one who has consistently shared good news as faithfully as my pen shared its ink?  Is my motive simply to serve my Lord with my whole being, holding nothing back, and reserving no part of my life or my being?  John’s head on a platter, Peter crucified upside down, Paul put to death by sword, a simple ink pen with nothing left to give, I want to hold nothing back.

As Paul said in I Corinthians 4:5 The Message:

When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the “Well done!” of God.

Speaking of faithful, loving and loyal service I must offer a word of praise to my beloved wife.  Lorie and I are celebrating 34 years of marriage.  Next to the grace of the Cross, Lorie is the greatest gift God ever gave me.  May I be a good steward of the grace of a precious daughter of the high King. 

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Morning devotions that I wanted to share.

Matthew 11:11 Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is ^[a]least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

In contrast to the great people in the history of the world John was the greatest.  He was greater than Augustus or Julius, Alexander the Great or Cyrus the Great, Isaiah or Jeremiah, David or Solomon, Elijah or Elisha.  John the Baptist, this one lonely prophet in the wilderness, was the greatest of all born of women.  That is standing on a pretty tall apex.

But the most insignificant member of the Kingdom of God is a place beyond John, an inner circle into which John is not admitted.  This is not about who is greatest in the Kingdom.  This is about the supreme value of being a Kingdom worker.  Sometimes in our role in a small ministry context we can feel utterly insignificant, those feelings are completely misguided. 

By an act of grace, so there is no room for pride, we are called to be workers, even co-workers with the Lord, in the cause of Christ.  In the economy of Heaven the faithful servant in the smallest role, in the least church in the most remote corner of a backwater community has a place beyond Kings and Emperors.  It would be better to be an evangelist with no congregation and only one Bible study a week with only one potential disciple than the sit in the White House, or own and run a multinational conglomerate.  Our struggle, or at least my struggle, is that we loose sight of the economy of Heaven.  

When the shoes and the car are worn out and need replacing, and the bills slightly exceed the pay, when the apparently fruitlessness of our efforts and the well-healed life of the secular is all around us, it is hard to say, “this matters”.  WE want to say, “What matters is this up coming doctor’s bill”.  When there are few that come to Bible study or services, but plenty for everything else it is easy to say “I am going fishing” John 21:3 I write this from my heart not to you.

In an act of faith, almost as profound as our original faith, we say, “I believe what Jesus said”.  We choose to believe that being in the Kingdom is greater than anything on earth.  We choose to love God more than mammon.  We, by an act of the will, say I will value what will matter in 10,000 years.  Who knows what eternity will hold.  Perhaps 10,000 years from now someone will come up to you and say, “Honored sir, may I please have the honor of standing with you for a moment, on earth you were a minister of the Gospel, an I merely ruled and empire.”

Christmas and the 4th Jesus

What does it take to get ready for Christmas?  Lights? Tree? Gifts? Whatever you do, don’t forget the fourth Jesus!

To maximize your Christmas season and experience you must encounter the fourth Jesus.  This encounter with the fourth Jesus is the only way that Christmas has any meaning beyond the sentimental emotional feelings that we get this time of year.  The feelings we get by looking at a Norman Rockwell painting; the wholesome, heart-warming pictures of Christmas in a bygone era in America.  There is nothing wrong with that; I am as nostalgic as the next guy.  But Christmas is more than a great occasion to sell merchandise and have feelings of warm sentimentality, to do that we have to understand the fourth Jesus.  Once you meet the fourth Jesus a great Christmas is no longer dependent on the commercial or romantic trappings we often use to describe a great Christmas.  Let’s talk about Jesus one, two, and three.

The first Jesus is baby Jesus in the manger.  This highly fictionalized and popular Jesus is the first choice of the repulsive Ricky Bobby in the movie Talladega Nights.  Many people like baby Jesus best.  What’s not to love?   The cool blue background of Christmas cards blending with twinkling stars and Mary and Joseph, so young but so wise, keeping company with clean sheep, in a clean manger, surrounded by clean straw.  Don’t forget the shepherds, angels that look like girls, and maybe even a collection of diverse kings.  This first Jesus elicits from us all the happy feelings of holidays.  And if you listen carefully you might hear Bing Crosby or Burl Ives singing in the background.

The second Jesus is the cool Jesus.  This fictionalized Jesus is everyone’s bro.  He wears a robe with His sandals and has long hair, which is perfectly kept in a carefree way.  He gives talks on mountainsides, mostly about being cool or at least nice to each other.  He is cool enough to hang with bad people and not give them grief about what they do.  You can find him munching fish and bread, which are no doubt organic.  His main thing seems to be to hang with people and do a lot of hiking to get around. 

The third Jesus is victim Jesus.  It is easy to feel sorry for this characterization of Jesus.  “The man” is oppressing Him.   You might call him “poor, pitiful Jesus”.  Victimized by an oppressive regime He is beaten and abused.   Don’t you feel sorry for this Jesus?  He only makes an appearance at Easter, but He is not as cuddly or cute as the Easter Bunny.  Because of that He doesn’t get much attention except when He is a handy, talking point about the need for some perceived political reform.

The fourth Jesus is the one that sweeps away these silly characterizations and fictional versions of Jesus.  The fourth Jesus gives meaning and unity to the babe in the manger, the traveling teacher, and the crucified innocent One.  As we approach December 25^th the way to prepare is to understand this fourth Jesus.  This fourth Jesus is described this way:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him, which no one knows except Himself.  He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies, which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.   From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.  And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

No one will “ooh and ah” at this Jesus they way they might at the babe in Bethlehem.  No one approaches this Jesus as if He was their homeboy and they were planning to hang out for an afternoon.  The emotion that comes to mind at this Jesus is not poor abused and battered victim.  While these sentiments may not be inherently evil they are a faint wisp of the proper reaction to Jesus.  

The best way to prepare for Christmas is by preparing for His second coming, in repentance, reverence, holy living and most of all by loving our soon to return King.

Christmas Reminds us: "You have one job!"

Allow me to take a couple of very different random thoughts and pull them together for a Christmas season application.

First random thought:

I love the “You had one job” memes that float around the Internet, pictures of complete job failures that are honestly hilarious.   Like the time the midfield logo was painted on the 45-yard line or the placement of the play ground slide that deposits the kid out in the street.  Then the street paint that reads, “No Parking FRIE Zone” or the highway department sign that requests, “Please Slow Drively”.  At a McDonald’s the marque was supposed to read, “Try our new Angus Burger” but the letters were misplaced so that the word Anus replace Angus.  Because these were not my gaffs I can laugh about them.  If it were my job or my workers I might find them less humorous.  The humor revolves around the theme “You had one job” and you failed to do it correctly.

Second random thought:

We have begun the celebration of Christmas, the incarnation of the Messiah.  From ancient times the church has used the celebration of the first coming of the Savior to consider His second coming.  What would it mean for the church if the Lord returned now?  Most of us tend to think that it would be pretty great for us, and perhaps not so good for other churches or believers.  We can make a list of how we have it right, based on some pet doctrine, a really busy schedule, or a theological position.  Those other churches, well, they might not fair so well.  They miss it on this or that point, they sing music that is culturally irrelevant or tries too hard to be cool, or have a heritage that is in some way less than ours.  Yea, we are pretty good, but the second coming is going to be pretty bad for them.  Oh, really.

Third random thought:

When Jesus was about to leave the earth He gave his followers, the church, one job.  “Go into all the world and make Disciples.”  That is it.  I got one job.  Everything else is secondary to that or supportive of that one job.   My job as a follower of Christ is to make disciples that I then train so that they can make disciples.  For the last 30 plus years in ministry in various capacities and in a lifetime, having grown up in a preacher’s home, I see that the church is often doing things other than making disciples.  Even our attempts at “outreach” and “church growth” have a lot more to do with filling up space rather than making disciples.  I have witnessed as congregations have made the active choice to be little more than a religious discussion club with a moderator/chaplain that they mislabel a pastor.  I have seen churches willfully hoard their resources away from the community stating, “It is ours not theirs.”  I have watched churches build and or maintain barriers to protect their comfort, resources and status.  I have to confess that my professional efforts have bought into this approach.  After all, I coach churches on how to raise money and build buildings.  I wonder if Jesus looks at my life and does a face palm and offers a deep, deep sigh?

 

No church is completely guilty, but some come close.  No church focuses perfectly on making disciples, but there are a few, very few, that are passionate about it.  SO, what do we do?

This Christmas season let’s add something to our worship and meditation.  As we contemplate the babe in the manger let’s also consider the coming king.  As we reflect on the nativity scene let’s also consider the scene as our Lord returns in glory.  As we kneel in worship at the stable let’s also think about kneeling before the judgment throne of Christ and contemplate our answer as He asks us, “What did you do about the one job I gave you?”

On a personal note.  This Thursday is the official release date for my book, The Adventures of June Bug Johnson. www.JuneBugJohnson.com  Thursday night at 7:00 PM EST I will be hosting a Facebook live event to share a little about the book.  I would be honored if you were able to join me.  https://www.facebook.com/charlie.crowe.792