Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

The Parents of the Savior

Today is Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent. Many Christians take this time to give something up as they prepare for Holy Week and Easter. I don't always do that, but I respect people who do. I think it is important to consider what Christ went through for us. I wrote this poem October 4, 2004, as I reflected on these things, and in particular, how it may have been for Mary and Joseph. The poem was also inspired by the songs "Mary, Did You Know?" by Mark Lowry, "Child of the Manger, Child of the Cross" by Craig Courtney, and "One Quiet Moment" by Bob Kauflin. These songs got me thinking more about how events throughout the Bible were connected.

Image by R. Gino Santa Maria
Adobe Stock


In a humble stable,
A young mother held her newborn baby in her arms
Did the joyful coos make her think
Of the same mouth speaking the stars into place?
Did she realize that the same lips
Spoke to Moses on the mountain
And did she know that one day
They would beg the Father to forgive His enemies?

In a foreign land,
A young couple taught their child how to walk
Did the crawling, toddling legs
Make them think of the same legs
Walking with Adam and Eve in the paradise of the garden?
Did they remember that those legs crushed the Tower of Babel
And that one day those ankles would be pierced
With long, cruel nails?

In a small village,
A father taught his son the art of carpentry
Did those little hands make him think
Of the same hands writing on tablets of stone
And on the wall of a palace?
Did he remember that those hands
Sprinkled manna over a desert
And that one day those wrists would be impaled
With nails bigger than the ones He was hammering into the wood?

Did they know that the back that dazzled Moses
Would one day be ruthlessly beaten
And forced to bear a heavy and slivery cross?
Did they realize that the breath that breathed life into Adam
And blew the waters of the Red Sea apart
Would one day breathe, "It is finished!" and slowly, painfully cease?

***

On a skull-shaped hill,
A mother watched her son die on a cross
She heard Him entrust her to the care of a friend
Did she know what she and her son's friend
Would find three days later?
Did she know that burial spices would be useless
And that her son would refuse to stay dead?

As she agonized over the suffering of her beloved son,
Did she know that the face so mangled and torn
Would so soon be glowing with life?
Did she know that those hands, dripping with blood,
Would so soon be raised in victory?

Did she realize that the love that saved the children of Israel
    The love that gave Jonah another chance
    The love that fed five thousand
    And brought the dead back to life --
Did she realize that that love led Him to pour out His wrath on Himself
To save her very soul?

Did she know that His death would be the shortest-lived death
And that by it He conquered death and sin
Once and for all?

That magnificent head is lifted on high
Crowned with glory and honor and splendor!
All hail the omnipotent King
Who was willing to give up His life and so conquer death
That we may reign forever as His beloved children!

Monday, January 23, 2023

An Understatement

I wrote this poem February 10, 2007 in response to a sermon by our pastor on God's holiness, from 1 Peter 1.

NASA/Hubble

Awesome
Amazing
Wondrous
Wonderful
Powerful
Terrifying

They don’t even come close!

Loving
Caring
Dazzling
Holy
Wise
Just
Merciful

Our words hardly scratch the surface
of what God is.

What words can describe
God’s wondrous love for us?
How can we begin to express
His awesome holiness?

No words can adequately tell
His amazing care and mercy
That an omnipotent God would deign
To save a poor lowly sinner like me!

His power knows no bounds
Yet His love has no end
His holiness goes beyond anything
That I could even begin to imagine!
His wisdom is so much greater
Than man’s most brilliant breakthroughs
His justice fairer and more terrifying than any can fathom
His mercy and peace far beyond than all comprehension

I can do nothing before such a wonderful, terrible, awesome God
But fall down at His feet
And cry “Holy! Holy! Holy!”

His brilliance goes beyond
All the blinding starry host
Who am I that the dazzling God of the universe
Would gaze at the darkness of my soul
And shine His radiant light of forgiveness
On my unworthy blackened heart?

All of my days I will praise His wonderful name.
As the moon shines the light of the sun,
O holy God,
May my life shine Your love and holiness
On a world in need of Your grace!

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Kathy Griffin's Faux Pas

Thoughts on recent events related to a misguided picture posted this week that went viral...I suggest reading the whole thing before you respond.

All sides have good points.

No matter how much you hate a person, pretending to behead them the way Kathy Griffin did is a horrible, shameful deed, even if you have no intention to actually physically harm them.

A normal citizen who did that would be in prison, but it seems that rich, popular comedians only get their shows cancelled (rightly so).

Barron Trump is 11. Under no circumstances is it OK that he was led to believe, however briefly, that his father was brutally murdered. Nor is it OK for us to criticize Trump for defending his son.

It is just as horrible that Sasha and Malia Obama had to deal with seeing people hang their father in effigy, burn images of him, and otherwise commit the exact crime against Obama that Griffin committed against Trump. Since the Obama effigies didn't go as viral, I don't know if they were fooled as Barron was.

I think this has gotten more press than the Obama effigies because Griffin is higher profile than the Obama effigy-ers, and it looks more realistic.

I think it would help if Barron and Melania move to the White House as soon as possible so Barron will not be so easily fooled, having his father right there.

Kathy Griffin apologized. Many of the people calling for us to forgive her are the same people who call for the heads of people who do similar things to liberals, long after they apologize.

Kathy Griffin only apologized after being pressured to do so. However, I do believe we need to move on, and we do need to allow her some reprieve. It's more than she deserves, but every one of us has made horrible mistakes that we regret. Yes, she needs our forgiveness.

The Trump family has been deeply traumatized by this. Yet they have been called bullies for responding as any family would when threatened by a realistic-looking effigy. Griffin's act was one of the worst examples of bullying I have ever seen in my life. Calling the Trumps bullies for this is victim shaming at its finest. They have done enough actual bullying without criticizing them for their reaction that was probably much calmer than most families faced with this kind of brutal attack.

I have seen reports that Griffin has received death threats. This is even worse than what she did. I find the increase of death threats on social media in recent years to be a deeply disturbing trend that needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is never OK to threaten to kill someone, to tell them to commit suicide, or in any other way wish death on them. Even as a joke.

It is never OK to be glad of another person's misfortune. We must not rejoice that the Trumps have been traumatized and scarred, and we must not rejoice that Kathy Griffin lost her job.

Both Trump and Griffin are human. Both have done horrible, grievous things. Both are bullies. We need to hold them to high standards, but we also need to extend grace to both. Those of us who pray need to do so earnestly for both of them.

We must move on and let both sides heal. I was traumatized seeing that picture, and I don't even like Trump. I hope this is a wake up call to everyone that we need to be civil to each other.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Do Not Condemn

This morning's Sunday school lesson:

The Pharisees, or religious leaders, couldn’t stand Jesus. He kept proving them wrong, and they didn’t like it. But the people loved Him. They saw Him heal a paralyzed man, a woman who had had health problems all her life, blind men, and more. He had even raised a girl and a boy from the dead! He turned water into wine. He told interesting stories to teach lessons, so people would remember what they learned. What was not to love about this guy? Well, when He constantly proves you wrong, it gets annoying. It gets even more annoying when He keeps mentioning how you’re just as sinful as the “sinners” you condemn! The Pharisees wanted to find a way to turn the crowds against Him, because they couldn’t just do away with Him without making the crowds mad at them. So they thought of a clever trap. Nobody could get out of this. Bwahahahahahaha!!!

The Pharisees knew that Jesus was a teacher. If they could trap Him into saying something that was everyone knew was bad, maybe they could get people to stop believing Him. So they found a sinful woman and brought her along. They said to Him, “Hey, teacher! This woman has been caught in the act of breaking the promises she made to her husband when they got married. In the Law, Moses said that we’re supposed to stone people who do that. What do you think?”

They thought they were so smart. What could Jesus say? If He said they should stone her, He would be contradicting everything He had taught on forgiveness and love. If He said they should let her live, He would be breaking the Law.

But Jesus knew why they were asking the question, and He was smarter than them. It’s one of the perks of being God. He decided to let them wait a bit while He bent down and wrote something on the ground. Then He stood up and turned the question around to them. “OK,” He said, “I want a volunteer. Whichever one of you has never sinned in your life, come forward, and you get to throw the first stone! Give it your best shot!” Then He bent down and wrote some more stuff on the ground.

Now the Pharisees were trapped. Everyone has sinned at some point in their life, and if anyone came forward to throw a stone, they would obviously be lying about having never sinned, and the people would turn against the Pharisees instead! One by one, the embarrassed Pharisees started to leave. The older ones left first. Pretty soon, the younger ones were gone too.

Once everyone was gone, Jesus stood up and said to the woman, “So, ma’am, where’d they go? Nobody has condemned you?”

“No, sir,” she said. “Nobody.”

Jesus, the only person in the crowd who had never sinned, said to her, “Then I don’t condemn you either. Go, and don’t sin any more.”

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Jesus Heals the Paralytic

Today's Sunday school lesson...

We started out with a modern example of an amazing quadriplegic who is truly one of my heroes. As I was preparing the lesson, I watched this video, and it occurred to me that the man in the Bible story from Mark 2 may have had similar thoughts and struggles to what Joni went through. (She also explains what a quadriplegic is in this video, for those who don't know.) In addition to showing the video, I showed some of my paintings (which I did with my hands), and compared them to Joni's paintings (which she did with her teeth!) I think hers are much better than mine, even if you don't take into account the hands/teeth thing.


You may remember how we learned a couple months ago about how Jesus healed the servant of a Roman general, called a centurion, in the city of Capernaum. The centurion asked Jesus to help his dying servant, and before the guy even got home, he found out his servant was well!

Another time, Jesus came to Capernaum to teach. Word got around that Jesus had come home, and everyone wanted to hear what He was gonna tell them. Houses were small at that time, and they usually only had one room. Pretty soon, the house where He was teaching was standing room only, and then there wasn’t even room for that! People kept gathering outside the house straining to hear what Jesus was saying.

Nearby, there lived a quadriplegic. They didn’t have wheelchairs at the time, and the only way disabled people could get around was if their friends helped them. Most people didn’t have beds, so they slept on mats instead. Mats could easily be rolled up and put away so people had room in their small houses to do other things during the day. This paralyzed man and his friends had heard that Jesus could heal things that the doctors couldn’t. They knew they had to get to Him, but what could they do? The house where Jesus was teaching was bursting with a huge crowd of people! They couldn’t exactly walk up to Him and ask Him to heal their friend. So they came up with a creative plan.

Houses were small and only had one room. They also had flat roofs and outdoor stairways leading up to the roofs. That way they had more space to do stuff on top of the house. Roofs were made of mud brick, thatch and other materials. The paralyzed man’s friends saw that even if they couldn’t walk through the door, they had access to the stairs leading up to the roof. So they carried their friend on his mat up the stairs to the roof.

Pretty soon the people down below started hearing footsteps above. Weird. Who was on the roof? Wait a minute! What’s this? Suddenly a shaft of sunlight came through the roof where there shouldn’t be sunlight! Someone was moving away the mud and other stuff that made up the roof, making a hole in the roof right above Jesus! The hole kept growing! Pretty soon, the sunlight was blocked by something being placed in the hole! They watched as slowly, carefully, a paralyzed man was lowered on his mat to the floor at Jesus’ feet. The house was pretty crowded, but somehow they managed to make room for the guy being lowered from above.

Jesus was impressed with their faith. They trusted Him so much that they went to great lengths to get their friend to Him, because they knew He could heal him. So Jesus said to the guy, “Your sins are forgiven.”

There were some religious leaders in the crowd, and they weren’t too happy to hear Jesus say that. They didn’t say anything, but they were thinking about how only God had the right to forgive sins, and if Jesus was saying this, that meant He was claiming to be God. They didn’t think Jesus could be God, because He was just a man!

But they didn’t know that Jesus could read their minds. They were sure surprised when Jesus turned to them and said, “Why are you thinking that? I could say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up, take your mat and walk.’ Which is easier?”

Imagine how speechless they must have been that Jesus read their minds! Then in case they didn’t get that, He went on, “But you need to know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins.” He turned back to the guy on the mat and said to him, “Dude, get up! Take your mat and go home!”

The paralyzed man stood up! For the first time in a long time (maybe ever), he rolled up his own mat. The amazed crowd cleared a path for him and watched in stunned silence as he carried his mat and walked out of the house! In awe, people in the crowd said, “We’ve never seen anything like this in our lives!” Many people believed in Jesus’ message that day.