Who Wants to be Lazarus?

Ok, imagine one day God comes to you and ask, Would you like to be in my book, the Holy Bible!? Instantly, your mind wanders to your favorite biblical heroes like Moses, David, Esther, or Ruth. You see yourself as saving a nation or changing the course of history. Then the Lord says, I want you to be Lazarus, it’s going to be in my new edition called the New Testament. And your answer is? Of course most of us have read this real and remarkable story told by Jesus Christ Himself. Here it is again:

Luke 16:19-31

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
NKJV

What would your answer be? Lord, I am so flattered that you would consider me for such a role, to illustrate how cruel and unloving wicked people can be with lots of money but do You REALLY think I would be best for that part? You know, why couldn’t we just change the story up a little bit, say that I was the rich man living sumptuously and there was an unsaved beggar that was at my gate. I could go out every day and bring him a bologna sandwich and hand him a tract until one day he get’s saved and then get’s rich himself and moves into the mansion next door?  Now Lord, with a successful story like that WE could make millions!

Of course most Christians would be appalled at changing the story to THAT rendition, especially since it was told by Christ. But how many people would really like to be Lazarus?

The point is some REAL person had to be Lazarus. Think about it, Lazarus is not begging now! He has been elevated to the highest level of happiness and joy! Lazarus will never be hungry again or have sores all over his body! No one really knows how long Lazarus was even in that state. Maybe he was once a very successful stock broker on Wall Street living in a penthouse over looking Central Park. He might have been happily married to a gorgeous babe who happened to be also a great cook. And then one day, BAM!, the recession hits, he loses his job and files for bankruptcy! Destitute he remembers a certain rich man…surely he will help me out, I mean, I was just like him once?  With the money gone, no 401K plan, the babe has left him, no more penthouse, in fact no place to live in the big Apple, he has little choices left to make. Now Robbie, wait a minute, there was no Wall Street when Christ spoke about this beggar? Really?, a transcendent God not bound by time and space? The words of the Bible ARE for ALL time no matter what stock market it was, the Greco-Roman or the New York Stock Exchange.

The point is are YOU willing to be Lazarus? I have news for you… YOU don’t have any choice!

In “Riders on the Storm” by the Doors it states…

“Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown”

Do we really have a choice where we are born and into whose family?

Another story involving Jesus Christ was an encounter with a blind man.

John 9:1-5  “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.  4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.  5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
NKJV

So it was God’s will that the man should be born blind? No, it was God’s will that everyone should see the TRUTH of God without the complicating factors of whose sin it was (especially for the legalistic Jew). Did God use the man to illustrate the point, yes He did. But what would have been the greater sin? The fact that one man had to suffer to illustrate truth for all eternity or for one to see and the rest of the world go blind?

Again, in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, the famous quote:

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;”

Are we mere actors on the great stage of God performing for His glory? I believe so and why not? Shouldn’t the creature glorify his or her creator?

Here’s what A W Tozer had to say:

“Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give.”

The point here is (if you are truly a Christian), this is not your home here anyhow. This is not where we should be looking for purpose and meaning because after all, the only REAL purpose and meaning belongs to Him.

In “the Bucket List” with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman there’s a scene where they’re in a tattoo parlor and Edward asked Carter, “Have you decided what you want yet, a black Jesus or a confederate flag?” To that Carter replied, “I didn’t see anything I wanted to be stuck with for the rest of my life.” Edward shot back, “We’re going to be dead in three minutes!?”

There’s a lot of truth to that if you think about it, and BTW, it’s later than you think.

There is another person that I would like to mention, Fanny Crosby.

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

Fanny Cros­by was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blind­ness, she said:

It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.

On another occasion:

“I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you,” remarked one well-meaning preacher.

Fanny Crosby responded at once, as she had heard such comments before.

“Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind?” said the poet, who had been able to see only for her first six weeks of life. “Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

Would you be happy to be blind until heaven? Would I? Are you upset that God didn’t make you another Billy Graham or Billy Gates? Are you bemoaning the fact that God didn’t help you realize the American Dream? Are you envious of someone in church who seems to have it all; 401K retirement plan with a Winnebago traveling around the county in luxury, an important position in the church, and has all the right answers?

Here’s what God has to say about that:

Phil 3:7-11

7 But what things were GAIN to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
NKJV

So who wants to be Lazarus? I must confess, this is a trick question. The real question is who wants to be like Christ?

Matt 11:28-30
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
NKJV

Again He says:

John 16:33
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
NKJV

Be careful how you answer that question, it will cost you everything, but then again do you really have anything to begin with? There are those reading this that are discontent. To those I say congratulations, you are on your way to the city of Light. There are those that are content to be just where they are. To them I pity the most. You will never find the true YOU. Actually, let me answer my original question… we are all Lazarus to a certain extent, we’re just different kinds. We are all in need of a Savior, we will never  be at peace and know true joy until we reach the gates of the City of Light,  and no one really knows who they are in this world.

Rev 2:17
To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”‘
NKJV

I look forward to know YOU, the true you, when we find ourselves hidden in Him.

Col 3:3-4
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
NKJV

A funny thing happened on the way to nowhere

People are so smug! They actually think that they have everything under control. It’s part of our obsession with comfort (what Francis Sheaffer called peace and affluence) and our so called right to the American dream.  Right from the beginning the influences of a fallen nature set the stage for the rest of our life. If you cry, you get food, shelter, and comfort.  What makes you think we have changed all that much since someone was last changing our diaper? We still whine and moan until we either embrace the illusion or create one for ourselves, the delusion to bring us relative peace of mind. I remember many years ago seeing some bumper sticker or sign that said, ‘relax, it’s later than you think’. Now that time has become a reality for me because to be quite frank about it, it seems as if it were just yesterday! There is a propensity or bent toward sin but even with talking about sin our minds gravitate toward something most often that has nothing to do with which to have a meaningful and constructive conversation about the very thing that’s our greatest enemy and the most destructive force to our mind, body, and souls. Even Satan himself is not nearly the threat that sin is. Sin is a problem that God took on, He wasn’t threatened by Satan, he was already defeated. Christ died because of sin, not Satan. Sin was and is the very thing that separates us from God. So that brings me back to my point, our way of thinking. I don’t want to talk so much about the acts of transgression against a Holy and Righteous Judge, but rather I want to talk about its nature, the moral malaise. That moral inability to do the very thing we ought to be doing. The very thing that we really desire and long for is pointed in a different direction and we just keep walking away from it. Like I said, we are smug. When we were children we had active imaginations, a virtual playing ground to keep us engaged, active, and entertained. But none of it was real.  When we were in school the future was in the future. That is to say, we didn’t have to live in the present because we were becomming.  After graduation we assume the world to be waiting for us with open arms while all the while we are fully engaged in narcissim. In mythology Narcissus according to wikipedia.org “was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. As divine punishment he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing it was merely an image, and he wasted away to death, not being able to leave the beauty of his own reflection.” You get the picture. So we join the corporation and there’s nothing but blue skies ahead until many years from then just to find out how much of a lie that really was. But here is the kicker… you wanted to believe it so much you did. You reach retirement and all is well except that now the fantasy is wearing pretty thin like the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’.  No wonder why we talk about grumpy old men as if that could never end up being us, after all we are too enlightened for that to happen?

Now we must rush off to the job, career, mission, or whatever as if we really knew what we are doing. We have it all figured out. A few more years of this and I will be there and we never live in the present. I mean the present is too boring and cynical, right? But that is where God lives, in the NOW, after all isn’t He the great I AM? Not I was, or not I will be but I AM. He is a trancendant God who is not confined by time. There is no beginning or end.

The answer my friend is not OUT THERE. It is IN HIM, right here, right now or it doesn’t exist at all. AW Tozer said, “If we are to bring back the spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is”. The perspective that we should have is that we are never alone, we never were.”Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony” (The Matrix).

We tried to talk it over but the words got in the way, Leon Russell

Words, and words we live and die by. I love words.  The title of this blog is a play on words, my favorite hyperbole of all. But yet so very true. People take words like so many other things in life too much for granted and to their own peril. In a sense many end up eating their own words. That will be most revealing on the day of judgment. OK, now I’ve done it,  there’s where I lost most of my audience and so good riddance. I only want to write to the believers anyway. Now there’s an interesting word, believers. Do they really? Do you know how far the head is from the heart? The difference between I believe and I know. Don’t even the devils believe (James 2:19)? But they don’t know the One. Well, Robbie, that’s not true, they really do. Well if you look at the word know of which I speak, you will see clearly it is one that means possession. In fact, in the book of Genesis, Adam knew Eve and she conceived (Gen 4:1). Know is to have something, know means intimacy.  So it brings me back to the title, the words got in the way. Have I lost you yet? Words brought in the existence of everything (that we know to be everything). In Genesis 1 I count 9 times that “God said…” and in John 1 the Word says… “In the beginning was the Word”.  Are we getting traction yet? I think by now you are seeing the profound significance and consequences of words. You have heard the phrase many times and most children and idiots still do, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” That’s a lie because they do. I bet there are brooding and festering words that someone told you years ago that still evoke a myriad of feelings including bitterness and resentment? Some one told me once the sorriest two words in the dictionary are “too late”! I’ve also been told that two of the most prominent things left to a person at the end of life are memories and regrets. Some of those were things said OR NOT said. Missed opportunities to speak well can be as well very disconcerting. On the other hand, the right words said at the right time can be very therapeutic and meaningful, take the following:

Prov 25:11
11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold
In settings of silver.
NKJV

And there are times when someone should say something to you even though it may hurt…

Prov 27:6
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
NKJV

Then there are the last words spoken. Every condemned soul are given a chance to say something. My grandmother, the day before she died, told me with piercing eyes and clear and distinct words, “I love you Robbie.” What you should know about that is that a year or more before that day she couldn’t formulate a whole sentence even if her life depended on it. Did she receive help from above to “speak yet once more”.  Yes, I think it was important for God to give her that opportunity. So how important is last words? Think about the two thieves that died on the cross with Christ.

Luke 23:42-43
Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” 43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
NKJV

When I at last made peace with God through the atoning blood of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was then and only then able to speak the right words for salvation.

Rom 10:8
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”
NKJV

Even in our prayers we want/need to say the right things.

Ps 19:14
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
NKJV

And when we can’t come up with the words to say…

Rom 8:26
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
NKJV

We all have favorite words, some of mine are paradox, epiphany, dichotomy, mystery, convergence, and enigma. I call these my “working words” that is I look for them, they serve to be the gateway between this world and the next.

The Apostle Paul is one my favorite writers. The ability to communicate with words is the word articulation. Paul was a master at it. I should add that the words were also divine in nature being the inspired Word of God. But to really enjoy the way something is done well is to appreciate art in it’s highest form.  He was a master at hyperbole, the intentional exaggeration of a saying or word to emphasize something. For instance, take the following…

Phil 2:1
2 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ
NKJV

Here are 8 words. There are three words that could by themselves effect the importance of what is being said, Therefor, if, and any. For instance the word if in this context… IF there is any consolation in Christ. Can you hear it? It screams at me. I am dumbfounded by the profoundness of it. It’s like asking the most stupid question you can think of because there is NO CONSOLATION AT ALL WITHOUT CHRIST. Think about this again. Take the word consolation. You can’t have consolation without a loser. The consolation prize goes to a loser! Think about the Olympics. They have a gold, silver, and bronze do they not? The first is the real winner, the second and third are losers albeit still a noble prize but still the same a loser award. We are pilgrims, wayfarers, aliens, and strangers.  We are even worse according to Paul…

1 Cor 4:13
We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.
NKJV

But we are citizens of heaven, even now.

I think the importance of words come with a realization that’s all we have and that’s all we need. Did not Christ Himself state this to Satan when He was being tempted in the wilderness?

Matt 4:4
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
NKJV

And now, my only prayer to God is to find the right words to say to YOU.  Because, if I could say but one thing that would propel you into the heart of Christ I would be at peace and close my eyes in death. To in some way soothe the broken heart of Christ. To eke (how is that for a word?) out a smile from the Almighty.

But unfortunately for me and for you we live in a broken world where everything we say even in the best way possible is often if not always taken or received in the wrong way. Everybody has an angle, everyone is proud, and even when we say something good God Himself might hide our advantage to keep us humble.

“We tried to talk it over but the words got in the way, we’re lost inside this lonely game we play”

“Are we really happy with this lonely game we play, Looking for the right words to say, Searching but not finding understanding anyway,  we’re lost in this masquerade” Leon Russell

Just think if there had never been a tower of babel? Not only would we not be separated by different languages but even in 0ur own language we are seriously misunderstood and maligned.

Be encouraged, learn a new word, make a point to read more and expand your vocabulary. Read the Word because it’s the only truth you will find. Love the Word for He is the only Life there is.

I will with His help try and say the right thing when we meet again.

Peace

The Last Day is the First Day

Dear Reader,
There is an old expression, “You can never go home again.” This is taken from Thomas Wolfe’s 1929 novel, “Look Homeward, Angel.”

…And at the end of it [self-appraisal] he knew, and with the knowledge came the definite sense of new direction toward which he had long been groping, that the dark ancestral cave, the womb from which mankind emerged into the light, forever pulls one back–but that you can’t go home again.

The inference being that: “You can’t go back to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame” (unknown). Or there could be deeper meanings such as the illusive and metaphysical Archetypes of Carl Yung or the revelation of Plato’s cave. Whatever it may be we all want to return to something. And of course there are among us those that haven’t even given it a moment’s notice. I suppose that a greater sense of appreciation to such a thought is sharpened with age, when you have more history than future (I speak as a mortal), you know more dead than alive, and people and places are vanishing before your very eyes. And then there are those that are doing more to forget those painful memories of “home” like in a popular song by the Eagles, “Some dance to remember, some dance to forget”. I wonder if you’re like me, and have actually gone back to visit old places from the past and tried to conjure old memories? I wonder if you felt the same disappointment, profound sadness, and shocking bewilderment? ‘You can never go home again’ then becomes more than an expression that you once heard or read but a nagging sense of reality that keeps getting larger and swallows us up.

C. S. Lewis in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory”,  said,

“Our common expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; and what came through them was longing. These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For the thing itself….Now we wake to find… we have been mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face was turned in our direction, but not to see us. We have not been accepted, welcomed, or taken in… Our life-long nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation.”

This blog is dedicated to this journey, this pilgrimage. May we all find our way back home.

Robbie Warner, December 31, 2009