"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers."  

 What a great way to start a story... well, maybe not for the guy who was attacked!  This intro grabs ya, it draws you in.  Immediately it makes me wonder-- why was he attacked?  Was he being a jerk?  Was this some type of hate crime?  What did this guy do to deserve this?  Was this just senseless violence or was there a motive?

We never find out.  Instead, the story takes a turn to uncover an unlikely hero from the reject fringes of religious society... but that will not be my focus today.  No, the hero will need to wait out his role as the main protagonist.  Today, I want to examine the man who was attacked because "They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead." (Luke 4:30, NIV)

Have you ever felt like this poor guy?  Can you identify with feeling attacked by people who want to steal from you?  Maybe not in this sense where your personal possessions are being stolen.  But rather, maybe you experience people who try to rob you of your joy or peace or privileges or rank or promotion.  Does that resonate?

Have you ever felt like this poor guy?  Have you ever felt nude and bare while fully dressed?  I don't mean that someone is "stripping you with their eyes" but rather that someone has said something that leaves you feeling completely naked.  Their words or actions deprived you of all decency and left you standing there alone in a crowd being scoffed at silently.  As if everyone around you could see right through your garments and you felt ashamed and embarrased as if you were completely unclothed?  Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever felt like this poor guy?  Can you identify with feeling beaten down and bedraggled?  Have you ever been worn out from the daily fight, bloodied by the weight of responsibility and exhausted with little to no energy left?  As if this world was closing in on you and the pressure and demands of every day crush your feeble soul until you become a lump of flesh melting into the dirt like a ice cube on a 100 degree summers day?  Can you relate?

They went away.  They left him for dead.  He was about to take a dirt nap and become worm food.  The vultures were already circling just waiting to tear into his warm and bloodied flesh.

This is the picture that Jesus is painting for his listeners.  The real, physical torment that this traveler endured at the hands of his attackers resonates with us because while most of us have not been beaten to the point of being "half dead," we know what it is like to feel this way.

The story gets better.

People pass by him.  They see him.  The hear him.  

Imagine this-- there he is probably groaning from pain, fading in and out of consciousness, and bleeding all over the dirt road, and people hear something odd then see someone about 20 yards ahead of them laying on the ground.  What do you think their reaction would be?  Stop and stare?  Size up the situation and determine that it would be better to head back to the crossroad behind them to avoid this mess?  Walk another 10 yards to get a closer look?  What if he had just passed out?  Would they poke him with a stick to see if he was... alive?  Now, what would you do?

That is exactly what happens.

People walked around him.  Passed by him.  No one stopped.

It is as if he were invisible.

Don't stop.  Don't help.  Don't comfort.  Don't care.  Shame him.  Mock him.  Accuse him.  Belittle him.

I have felt this way-- invisible.  Who cares for the one who cares for others?  Who encourages the encourager?  Who supports the supporter?  Who invests in the investor?

I know that the typical, churchy response is... "All you need is Jesus, brother."  Really???  If that were true then why are there 6 billion people on this planet?  By that same logic, I guess I don't really need community with others then, do I?  No, that's not true.  We need each other.  God created us that way.  

Do we need God?  Absolutely.  Is Jesus all we need to be made in right standing with God?  Absolutely.  Is the Spirit of God more than enough for our soul to be quenched and drenched with the love of God?  Absolutely.  But God also designed this whole human existence as a family, a community.  We are not supposed to do life alone.  

 

No one is supposed to be invisible.

 

I felt this way today.  It sucked.  I had 20 people pass me by when I needed them most.  No one stopped.  Some jeered.  Some mocked.  But no one stopped.  I hate feeling invisible.  

Spirit of God, please empower us to see the invisible, over-looked, under-appreciated souls that you put in our lives so that they will feel the love of your Son, Jesus, emanating from Your Spirit alive within us.  Give us the boldness to move out of our comfort to unleash us into the adventure of living Spirit-led and use us to see the invisible souls around us so that we can embrace them as family.  Amen and amen.

Have you ever read something that just seemed to literally leap off the page at you when you read it?  

I have.

It's like the first time I saw a movie in HD with 7.1 surround compared to the SD non-surround that I was used to.  It's like when I went to the theater for the second time to watch Avatar by James Cameron only that this time I was watching it in 3D.

It makes me think, "Has that always been there?  I am pretty sure it has since I know that I have read this a few times before but something about THIS time really resonates with me."

Have you been there?  Have you had this type of experience?  My hunch is that you have.

I was listening to an audiobook recently by Francis Chan entitled, "Forgotten God: reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit" and the entirety of the book reverberated with my soul as if God were strumming the strings of my heart.  But one part of this book seemed to leap off the page at me (or in my instance, echo through the speakers).

In the epilogue of the book, Francis is encouraging readers to do something with what they have read and not allow other well-meaning Christians to "normalize" them.  He writes that often when a Christ-follower is fully yielding to The Spirit, the actions of that person can seem a bit extra-ordinary or super-natural.  The typical "Christian" response is to pull them aside and "try to calm people down who are just too passionate or too sacrificial and radical."

He then shares how he has done the same to others as well as had this quenching of The Spirit done to him.  Francis admits, "As a Church, we tend to do this to people who are passionate and bold.  We mellow them out-- institutionalized them, deaden them-- to the work that the Spirit is doing in them."

This next part got me.  

God had used Francis to capture the attention of my heart and my soul was attentive and tuned in to what The Holy Spirit wanted me to hear.  He continued with Scripture describing what happened after God healed a man through Peter and John who stood trial before the religious leaders because The Holy Spirit performed this miracle.  He writes, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13, NIV

Peter and John were "unschooled, ordinary men."  Not superheroes.  Not celebrities.  Not even well educated.  They were definitely not saints according to our traditional, orthodox thinking.  They were blue collar workers who were fully yielded to The Holy Spirit living IN them.

I can't get that out of my heart-- "unschooled, ordinary men."  In light of this, who am I?  What implication does that have for my life?  As a person who trusts in Christ, what results or fruit should I see in my life?  Admittedly, I am just a t-shirt and jeans guy who is desperately in love with Jesus.  If I actually believe the Bible is true about this, then I too have the same Holy Spirit alive within me.  The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and empowered the Apostles to do all that they did is also alive in me.  

Do I actually live like this is true?  Can my life be explained apart from the work of The Holy Spirit?  Am I living in such a way that people can look at my life and it makes sense?  Shouldn't people be saying of me, "Isn't this Dave, the C-average student with no college degree who never attended Bible school?  We are astonished at what God is doing in him and through him!"

What's crazy to me is that Peter and John in verse 29 prayed that God would enable them to speak with great boldness.  What?!?  Didn't that just happen?  Yet, in their prayer, they recognized that The Holy Spirit of God within them was all the more capable to do exceedingly greater things than they could imagine!  They wanted more.  They wanted more of God to be evident in their lives so that people would continually look at their words and actions and declare, "they [are] unschooled, ordinary men, [and we are] astonished!"

I love the response of the people who witnessed all of this. "After further threats [from the religious leaders] they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened." (Acts 4:21, NIV)  That should always be the response to The Holy Spirit alive and at work in our lives... God gets the glory.  Period. (see also Matthew 5:16)

So to you who are like me, ordinary people... may we be fully yielded to act and respond to the work of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in our being so that others may see the outcome of our lives and be astonished giving glory, honor, and praise to our Father in Heaven because we too are with Jesus.

There is a target on your back.

The enemy is on the prowl and wants you back.

You may not realize the threat you pose,

But the Enemy who sees you knows.

 

The One who loves you has set you free

A ransom paid with utmost jubilee.

His blood was the payment for your debt,

Him in you, you in Him; a living duet.

 

The Enemy fights with cheating and deceit,

Enslaving every soul to cycles that repeat,

Blinding the cosmos with apathy and hate,

It's you The Enemy wants to eliminate.

 

So there really is a target on your back.

Be ever mindful of impending attacks.

Trust in the life that the King offers freely,

Stand, fight-- you no longer belong to The Enemy.

Frank Allen: Ever heard of chaos theory, Ed? It's a science, tries to determine underlying patterns in chaotic systems like weather, ocean currents, blood flow sort of things. But it turns out that few things are more chaotic than the beat of a human heart. Its beating up, slowing down. Pretty face, flirty stares. It's always changing on what's happening to ourselves out there. It's an erratic son of a b***ch. But underneath all of that bump-da-bump mess, there is in fact a pattern, the truth, and it's love. Most important thing about love is that we choose to give it, and we choose to receive it. Making it the least random act in the entire universe. It transcends blood, it transcends betrayal and all the dirt and makes us human.

Convenience. Comfort. Safety.

I am convinced that none of these have to do with love.

Real love, unconditional love is always disruptive, always sacrificial and rarely convenient.

Sometimes my life gets interrupted-- moments where my true character is revealed.  Love does not tend to ooze out of me at these intersections of Faith and schedule.  When I get squeezed, my character tends to exhibit anger, impatience, & lack of self-control.

I think about the massive inconvenience it must have been for King Jesus to leave Heaven to become the son of peasants; the discomfort He endured to be ridiculed, mocked, tortured; the risk He initiated to love me when I was far from lovable.

His love is always sacrificial and never conditional.

I often wonder & wrestle with this question... how can I call myself a follower of Jesus when at times my life is not reflective of His?

Jesus, destroy the arrogance in my heart that feels entitled to convenience, comfort, & safety. Work in me, remake me so that in all things you may be glorified. Help me love others with the same love that you have given to me.  Make me a person who freely offers real love, unconditional love that is always disruptive, always sacrificial and rarely convenient. Amen & amen.