Right Priorities

I was thinking about a statement Jesus made to His disciples one day as He reflected on the need of the crowds.  It’s found in Matthew 9:35-38:

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion (You could insert love here.) for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

When you look at this, what seems to fit?

• Jesus is ministering to needy people.  We see that all the time.
• Jesus is healing people in miraculous ways.  That too is typical of Him.
• Jesus has great compassion or love for these people.  Jesus attracted all kinds of different people to Himself, including people who were on the margins and who didn’t fit with a holy man like He was – “prostitutes, tax collectors and ‘sinners’.”
• He recognized a great spiritual harvest that was ready to be gathered in.

What amazes and surprises you?

• Jesus doesn’t ask them to pray for a bigger harvest.  Certainly He wanted a big harvest.  If great numbers of angels rejoice in heaven when just one lost sheep returns to the fold how much would they rejoice if thousands or millions do?  But apparently the size of the harvest, which definitely mattered to Him, wasn’t the biggest issue.  We always think the bigger the better and put most, if not all, of our emphasis there.  However, that wasn’t Jesus’ way.
• Jesus asks for them to pray for more workers.  Jesus’ concern was that there wouldn’t be enough workers to gather in this great harvest.  The workers are obviously you and me.  Jesus’ concern is that, for whatever reason, we won’t go out into the fields.  His prayer is that we will.

I have read this story many times and not caught that important piece before.  How about you?  Have you missed it too? 

This text will now serve to remind me again of Jesus’ priority of people, especially people far from God, over everything else.  Obviously Christian people matter.  They have needs and they need ministry too.  However, we must be sure that our focus is always out in the fields.  That needs to get the first and best of our attention.

Does it get your first and best?  How do you know?  Can you point to specific places in your life – people far from God who you are inviting to church, building a relationship with or ministering to in Jesus’ name?  Do you remember the last time you had a spiritual conversation with someone that pointed them to Jesus?  Who are you regularly praying for to receive Christ?

How do you react to this important reminder?  Let us know.

Bifurcated Spirituality

The term bifurcated is not one that we use very much, but it is a powerful term.  To bifurcate something means to “divide or fork  into two branches.”  We bifurcate lots of things.  Bernie Madoff bifurcated his life when he had the appearance of being a successful investor instead of the man behind a giant ponzi scheme.  If a man or woman carries on a long-standing affair while maintaining the life of a good parent and spouse are they not bifurcating their lives?  Politicians are notorious bifurcaters too.  They may say something like, “I am a person of deep faith, but I don’t allow those faith convictions to influence my political agenda.”  You get the point . . .

The Bible is clear over and over again that Jesus is either Lord of all or Lord not at all.  Here is one example:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

With all this being said, how can we be so tempted to bifurcate our lives with God?  It doesn’t work.  God doesn’t accept it.  At best, all we do is cheat ourselves out of the fullness of the blessing of a life intimately connected with God.  At worst, we deceive ourselves and doom ourselves to an eternity removed from God’s presence.  Spiritual bifurcation is sin, plain and simple, and sin leads to death. 

The Bible says that we break free from any and all sin first through confession and repentance (1 John 1:9, James 5:13) and then further through walking in and with the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8).  We must be resolved, however, that we cannot live bifurcated lives anymore.

So, what are we to do?  How do we get into this mess of spiritual bifurcation in the first place?  How do we get out?

Spiritual Blind-spots

Jesus shared a powerful parable:

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.  Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.  Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.   For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)

How is it that we can be so blind to the simple obedience Jesus calls for?  Our words can be so lofty and pious and express such commitment, but our follow-through can be so lacking!  For some reason, according to Jesus, the more "religious" we are, the more we are prone to do this.

How can this happen?  How do we allow these huge blind-spots to form in our lives?

I think it starts when our spiritual words become divorced from our hands-on, simple obedience.  We say the right Sunday School answers, but have no real idea what to do next or, if we do know what to do, we have no intention of doing it.  On top of this, we forget that life in Christ and obedience to Jesus' commands requires commitment and sacrifice.  If we are unwilling to sacrifice we are never going to be willing to obey.  There is always a cost involved with obedience.  I also think we over-complicate things, whether by accident or on purpose.  Most of what Jesus calls us to do requires little or no advanced planning, just a simple willingness to trust and obey.  In that regard it would be better to act with the best of intentions and miss the mark sometimes than to wait around and not act at all.

What do we do?  Here is a start:  Talk less . . . obey more . . . and ask God for help to first see and then remove all the spiritual blind-spots in our lives.      

What do you think?  How have blind-spots formed in your life?  What have you done or what do you need to do to move forward?