I am going to try to be gentle with this blog. However, it hits a very sensitive chord in me. It often angers me. The topic is “CHURCH SIGNS.” (Imagine music here like: Dum, Dum, Dum). Yes indeed. I hate church signs. Lord Jesus, deliver us. Church signs often get on my last nerve. See, I am a proponent of simply putting Scripture on church signs. That seems like a beautiful idea to me. People drive by your church sign and could read a wonderful verse. Wouldn’t that be nice? But noooooo! The good ole church people have to let Deacon Fred come up with quirky statements each week for passers by to read. Is that even possible? Evidently not!
I saw this one just recently. Jesus is Coming; Everyone Look Busy! Please forgive this next question! But, what in the hell does this mean? I mean honestly. Are you kidding me? Look busy. Does this mean that right now and every perpetual moment of my life from this point on I am supposed to look like I am doing some stuff? I read this one and I thought to myself, “Do I look busy enough while I am driving down the road?” I then thought that maybe this church had some real yard work needs. I guess they might have thought that if they put this sign up people would drive by, feel guilty, stop, get out, and cut their grass or weed the flower beds. I wasn’t real sure.
Having thought about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that the sign must have had something to do with the ole “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop” theology. You know, stay busy and stay out of trouble. Either way it is one of the stupidest things I have ever read. No wonder Christians get the best spots on Jerry Springer. We all might as well knock out our front teeth, grow mullets, and move our trailers to a spot directly in the path of a large tornado. This way we can capitalize on getting bad press.
So, let’s think about this sign for a moment. Look busy, huh? Does Jesus want us to look busy? Let me think about it. No, He does not. Let me back that up.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your hear take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.” (Psm 27:14)
“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” (Psm. 37:7)
“I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.” (Psm. 130:5)
“…Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.” (Isa. 49:23)
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him…” (Lam. 3:25)
“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way…” (Psm. 37:7)
“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Why do we do this? Why do we teach that doing is better than being, being in Christ? For the love of God, slow down. Stop if necessary. Take a deep breath. Step out of your cycle of going at break neck speeds. Rest! Wait! See what God is saying in this passage. Experience it for real.
“Come all you who are weary and heavy-laden.” It is a call to you. It is very personal. Come! It is an invitation in the Spirit to approach Jesus with your burdens, with your heartache.
Some of you feel very weary today. Some of you think daily of ways to get out of the life in which you find yourself. You want so badly to change things. Often your method is to just stay busy, take on more stuff. If you stay busy, you can eventually ignore or shut out the gentle whisper of your savior when He says, “Come.” It is an invitation to give your burdens to Him.
Wouldn’t you love to have someone make your load lighter? I am enjoying it. Jesus will do whatever is needed for you to unload your burdens. He said it in the words following the invitation.
“…and I will give you rest.” Initially Jesus will give you the rest that you need. I think that it is so cool how Jesus speaks this peace to us. You know that when your life is a mess, you don’t have the energy or the strength to do for yourself. I am talking about the times when the world is crashing down around you. You can’t possibly come up with a plan or with the strength to move forward. You don’t have to. Jesus said, “I will give you rest.” He knows when your strength is gone. His invitation doesn’t start out with, “Do this, then, that, then do this.” He says, “Come…I will give you rest.” You simply surrender to the call. “For the Lord will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their strength is gone…” (Deut. 32:36)
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart…” After you have rested in the Lord, He then offers to lead you and to teach you. To us the yoke is an allegory using the tool that held oxen together as they plowed. More importantly and specifically in this case, it would be expanded in thought to that of a rabbi’s teaching. This is what a rabbi’s teaching was called, a yoke. Jesus is playing on this train of thought. He is comparing His teaching with that of a rabbi’s in that day.
Rabbinical teaching in this day would have been heavy and burdensome. It would have reeked of the weight of the law. You would have to learn so many things to do and not to do. This is what the listener would have been thinking. Jesus was a rabbi of sorts to many. The listener would have been thinking that following Jesus might just be another set of rules to follow. Each rabbi would probably have his own ideas of which laws and rules were most important to him. Who would want to swap one set of personal preferences of what to do with another set? Plus, rabbis evidently weren’t known for their gentleness and humility. Jesus makes this comparison too. GRACE wasn’t a word nor a concept understood. Sounds strangely similar to life in the “Church.”
When your world is upside down don’t you just want someone to teach you difficult and heavy truths? Of course not. When you are down, you need grace, humility, understanding, and love. This is what Jesus’ yoke (teaching) is. He offers to take your fear of being taught more things to do and not to do. He offers his heart in humility and gentleness.
After you have learned from Him and felt His love wrapped around you he says, “You will find rest for your soul.” Now that you have learned that Jesus will walk gently and humbly with you as you learn, you are ready to begin to find the rest that you need. First that means that, you now know where to go to experience the joy of His grace, His yoke (teaching); you simply turn to him. Second, through His Spirit, He will guide you into more truth. He does this through His Word, through personal experience and revelation. You are now equipped to find rest.
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Jesus is so gentle that he closes this thought with telling us that His teaching, His way, this journey in Christ is easy and light. Please don’t hear me say that life is a cakewalk. I got some evidence of my own to disprove that. What Jesus is saying here and what I am repeating is that the way of Jesus is not doing more or looking busy, it is sitting at His feet, learning and listening. If this isn’t enough evidence, read about Martha’s response.
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40-42)
I love you, your servant, your friend,
Tim
I saw this one just recently. Jesus is Coming; Everyone Look Busy! Please forgive this next question! But, what in the hell does this mean? I mean honestly. Are you kidding me? Look busy. Does this mean that right now and every perpetual moment of my life from this point on I am supposed to look like I am doing some stuff? I read this one and I thought to myself, “Do I look busy enough while I am driving down the road?” I then thought that maybe this church had some real yard work needs. I guess they might have thought that if they put this sign up people would drive by, feel guilty, stop, get out, and cut their grass or weed the flower beds. I wasn’t real sure.
Having thought about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that the sign must have had something to do with the ole “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop” theology. You know, stay busy and stay out of trouble. Either way it is one of the stupidest things I have ever read. No wonder Christians get the best spots on Jerry Springer. We all might as well knock out our front teeth, grow mullets, and move our trailers to a spot directly in the path of a large tornado. This way we can capitalize on getting bad press.
So, let’s think about this sign for a moment. Look busy, huh? Does Jesus want us to look busy? Let me think about it. No, He does not. Let me back that up.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your hear take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.” (Psm 27:14)
“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” (Psm. 37:7)
“I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.” (Psm. 130:5)
“…Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.” (Isa. 49:23)
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him…” (Lam. 3:25)
“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way…” (Psm. 37:7)
“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Why do we do this? Why do we teach that doing is better than being, being in Christ? For the love of God, slow down. Stop if necessary. Take a deep breath. Step out of your cycle of going at break neck speeds. Rest! Wait! See what God is saying in this passage. Experience it for real.
“Come all you who are weary and heavy-laden.” It is a call to you. It is very personal. Come! It is an invitation in the Spirit to approach Jesus with your burdens, with your heartache.
Some of you feel very weary today. Some of you think daily of ways to get out of the life in which you find yourself. You want so badly to change things. Often your method is to just stay busy, take on more stuff. If you stay busy, you can eventually ignore or shut out the gentle whisper of your savior when He says, “Come.” It is an invitation to give your burdens to Him.
Wouldn’t you love to have someone make your load lighter? I am enjoying it. Jesus will do whatever is needed for you to unload your burdens. He said it in the words following the invitation.
“…and I will give you rest.” Initially Jesus will give you the rest that you need. I think that it is so cool how Jesus speaks this peace to us. You know that when your life is a mess, you don’t have the energy or the strength to do for yourself. I am talking about the times when the world is crashing down around you. You can’t possibly come up with a plan or with the strength to move forward. You don’t have to. Jesus said, “I will give you rest.” He knows when your strength is gone. His invitation doesn’t start out with, “Do this, then, that, then do this.” He says, “Come…I will give you rest.” You simply surrender to the call. “For the Lord will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their strength is gone…” (Deut. 32:36)
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart…” After you have rested in the Lord, He then offers to lead you and to teach you. To us the yoke is an allegory using the tool that held oxen together as they plowed. More importantly and specifically in this case, it would be expanded in thought to that of a rabbi’s teaching. This is what a rabbi’s teaching was called, a yoke. Jesus is playing on this train of thought. He is comparing His teaching with that of a rabbi’s in that day.
Rabbinical teaching in this day would have been heavy and burdensome. It would have reeked of the weight of the law. You would have to learn so many things to do and not to do. This is what the listener would have been thinking. Jesus was a rabbi of sorts to many. The listener would have been thinking that following Jesus might just be another set of rules to follow. Each rabbi would probably have his own ideas of which laws and rules were most important to him. Who would want to swap one set of personal preferences of what to do with another set? Plus, rabbis evidently weren’t known for their gentleness and humility. Jesus makes this comparison too. GRACE wasn’t a word nor a concept understood. Sounds strangely similar to life in the “Church.”
When your world is upside down don’t you just want someone to teach you difficult and heavy truths? Of course not. When you are down, you need grace, humility, understanding, and love. This is what Jesus’ yoke (teaching) is. He offers to take your fear of being taught more things to do and not to do. He offers his heart in humility and gentleness.
After you have learned from Him and felt His love wrapped around you he says, “You will find rest for your soul.” Now that you have learned that Jesus will walk gently and humbly with you as you learn, you are ready to begin to find the rest that you need. First that means that, you now know where to go to experience the joy of His grace, His yoke (teaching); you simply turn to him. Second, through His Spirit, He will guide you into more truth. He does this through His Word, through personal experience and revelation. You are now equipped to find rest.
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Jesus is so gentle that he closes this thought with telling us that His teaching, His way, this journey in Christ is easy and light. Please don’t hear me say that life is a cakewalk. I got some evidence of my own to disprove that. What Jesus is saying here and what I am repeating is that the way of Jesus is not doing more or looking busy, it is sitting at His feet, learning and listening. If this isn’t enough evidence, read about Martha’s response.
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40-42)
I love you, your servant, your friend,
Tim
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