Dear All of Us,
This week we start
with rough stuff
and hopefully
a smooth finish.
Let's see what happens.
Not nice, rough, but
Two Fisted Drinkers
sure are a concern.
Their booze blitz
blocks better and best.
The same is so with
Two Fisted Getters.
They clutch all
they can get:
power, popularity,
pleasure, property,
possessions.
Paradoxically they
end up blocked
by their "gots,"
trapped and possessed
by their possessions.
There is no room for
different, deeper,
better, fuller.
Two Fisted Getters
are like someone clutching
handfuls of pennies
so tightly that they
decline the hand off
of an inheritance check
for ten million dollars.
Penny Poor for sure!
Jesus says it all
oh so much better.
Together let's
Heart Hear
Him
as shared in
Luke 12:13-34
and contemporized
for us in
The Message
translation.
Here Jesus speaks
to warn and ween,
to win over from
FAUX FILL
TO
FULL FILL
He paints a
Word Picture
in broad strokes
with bold-bright colors.
That's how the ancient Jews
stressed importance.
So slowly we
Soul-Scan-Sense
this spoken
Reality Canvas.
As we do,
- what's the deep down
truth pictured here?
- how do we deep down
react to it?
- how do we deal with these
broad strokes,
this bold-bright,
"colorful language"
of Jesus?
- are we drawn into
this "picturing"
or do we push off
from it?
- do we see any of
our culture,
value system,
life style,
pictured here,
actual, desired, or both?
- what's our gut reaction
to the two ways
of living,
of receiving,
that Jesus sketches -
getting or being given?
- what do they look like
as current and lived
in our here and now?
- scanning Jesus here,
what does it mean
to move from
preoccupation with
our "getting" to being
open in trust and gratitude
to God's "giving"?
- what's the cost
of the trust level
needed to be "given"?
So we go
slowly and honestly.
No rush-brush.
We pray and ponder
as we see/hear
the word picture
Jesus paints:
"Take care! Protect yourself
against the least bit of greed.
Life is not defined
by what you have,
even when you have a lot."
(vs.15)
"Don't fuss about what's
on the table at mealtimes
or if the cloths in your closet
are in fashion.
There's a lot more to
your inner life than the food
you put in your stomach,
much more to your
outer appearance than
the cloths you hang
on your body.
Look at the ravens,
free and unfettered,
not tied down to
a job description,
carefree in the care of God.
And you count far more."
( vs 22-24)
"If God gives such attention
to the wildflowers,
..., don't you think
he'll attend to you,
take pride in you,
do his best for you?"
(vs 28)
"What I'm trying to do here
is get you to relax,
not to be so preoccupied
with getting so you can
respond to God's giving.
You're my dearest friends!
The Father wants to give you
the very kingdom itself."
(vs 31-32)
"Be generous.
Give to the poor.
Get yourselves a bank ...
in heaven...
a bank you can bank on...
The place where
your treasure is,
is the place you will
most want to be,
and end up being."
(vs 33-34)
Jesus tells us that
The Father wants
to give us
The Kingdom.
Are our hands
empty enough,
is our heart
trusting enough,
to accept?
There it is!
Lighten up.
Loosen up.
Let go the grip of our
GETTER CULTURE
Open those tightened
fists full of pennies with their
FAUX FILL.
Drop it.
Then God can
FULL FILL
our hands
and every other part
and possibility of us
to endless fullness.
For sure this is Gospel,
"Good News."
For sure this is also
hard to hear,
hard to take
in a capitalistic
Get Culture:
- "Very lovely.
Totally impractical."
- "I've got a mortgage
to manage and kids
to get through college."
- "If you don't get,
you're got!"
- "So who/what insures
my retirement?"
- "How about what
my relatives and
neighbors would
make of me,
do to me?"
- "Idyllic, but I'm no
Flower Child."
Given the above,
too often too many
of us settle for
a wimpy and supposed
"spiritualizing"
of what Jesus says.
"I'll have a 'spirit' of
simplicity and trust,
but I can't function
the way Jesus invites -
just not practical or secure."
That sadly sterilizes the life out
of what Jesus offers.
Real "spirit" is
front and center,
dynamic, operative,
functional, actual.
So, how do we avoid
a sentimentalized and
fake "spiritualizing"
of what Jesus says?
So how do we live
out all this with
a whole spirit?
It comes down to,
and raises up to,
who/what we trust -
market, money, or
The Creative Energy
that makes us
and makes us go.
If we bank on
what Jesus offers,
we accept
God Given Grace
(inner "oomph")
- to be assured by Jesus
of God's care and providing,
to bank on it
- to notice all that care
and providing at play in
our practical, daily living -
we actually do have food,
shelter, clothing, the
beauties of nature,
the arts and sciences,
learning, and...
- to live practically, but simply
- to actually refuse greed.
- to actually relax our spirit -
and quit fearful getting.
- to actually let God secure us
as we go about our daily life
rather than grab all we can.
So yes we go to work
and do our banking
and pay our mortgages,
We send our kids to college.
We let God work
through our work.
We bank on,
take the "spirit,"
the dynamic of trust
to our work, bank,
tuition payments,
neighborhood.
We let God
line things up
for us/with us,
be our assurance
and surety.
We focus on
the gifts and largess
that God showers on us
through the practicalities
of freed, trustful living.
We relax into living
"carefree in the care of God."
We swap out
FAUX FILL
and trust God to
FULL FILL
That puts a smooth finish
on everything
Joining you in
Kingdom Trust,
John Frank
******
PS
Left untouched by grace,
I tend to cave to fear and
worry about security.
More and more
over the years, though,
I've chosen to trust God
more than not.
At eighty plus
I have been "given"
a wonderful wife, children,
and now grandchild,
health, sufficient
retirement funding,
a marvelous life in
education and ministry.
Wimpy and weak as I am,
I more and more do "relax",
trusting in God's care,
being "preoccupied"
with God's "giving"
and am I ever so grateful.
In sharing this here
I don't give a red hot anything
but offering a weak man's
witness to God's care and
GIVING.
******
WELCOME ALL
A special
"Hi 5"
to all of us from the USA
******
"frankly speaking"
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******
Hey, lucky us!
God Trust
God Given
frees from
FAUX FILL
for
FULL FILL
How about that scripture
Luke 12:34 (The Message)
"The place where your
treasure is,
is the place...
you will end up being."
We get to choose
the address
of our
forever.
What a deal!!
******
See you next week!
******
God gives us openness
mind, heart, soul -
limitless
God offers invites
a filing to endless fullness.
Gotta trust and open
