Community: A Way of Jesus

I’ve been studying a bit about what Lord Jesus didn’t do. It’s a fascinating subject! During His time before Herod, Jesus wouldn’t respond to his insincere questioning. (Luke 23:8-11)

Why not? Lord Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6) Discernment is necessary.

Yesterday I was visiting a doctor for a checkup, a Christian man, he told me that he was reading a book about the things Jesus didn’t do. That’s confirmation from God.

Lord Jesus also did not live alone. He lived in a community of believers in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. (Matthew 4:13) Most of His disciples were called to follow Him from that area. He healed people there. In a sense it was His headquarters.

When The Lord traveled, walking, from village to village, His followers went with Him, both men and women. The place, Capernaum, was not the community, but the people, the fledgling beginning of the Church, was the community. (Matthew 10:1-4; Luke 10:1; Matthew 27:55-56)

After Christ ascended, His people, the Church continued living in community in Jerusalem while around them was persecution. (Acts 1:15) As the Church grew and spread, more and more parts of the Church body were established.

Paul planted some of these communities—Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica….while around them was persecution.

Lord Jesus said,  “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9) A sheep pen is an enclosure or a cave with only one entrance. The sheep go in an out of this entrance to feed. But at night, the shepherd himself is the door; he lays down across the entrance so that no sheep wander off and no wolves get in.

Believers are the sheep, kept together in a community. The door to the community is Lord Jesus. Believers go in and out, which means freely about their daily activities. (Jeremiah 37:4; Psalm 121:8) There is protection in a community of believers. It is a way of Jesus.

In 1984, my college class took a weekend trip to Chicago. There we visited Jesus People USA. It is a vibrant community of believers living together in a 10-story building in Uptown Chicago with the purpose of serving the poor. Within their ranks are young people, senior citizens, married couples and children. Begun in 1972, with a group of hippies living together in a basement, today they number about 200 souls. Sounds radical doesn’t it? But it has worked for nearly 50 years.

The heritage of Christians has been community, for support, safety, help in need, care, edification, etc.. It is how the believers of the Holy Land have survived and remained for 2,000 years. It is the legacy of the Mayflower Pilgrims, the Puritans, Mennonites and all other Christian communities that have come to America to worship in freedom leaving behind the persecution of the Old World.

The Amish also came to the United States for freedom of religion; theirs is a history of martyrdom, extreme persecution. Though they primarily live in rural areas, they keep together as a church, where there is safety to practice their own ways, help when life’s storms come, and they take care of their own seniors and people who are disabled. Together they celebrate marriages and births and mourn with those in mourning. No one is left to bear his burden alone.

The first large group of Amish arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1730. They have been growing strong for 290 years.

The modern church has deviated from this way of Jesus. Community, where people care. Where safety resides. Where there is freedom in everyday life.

Lord Jesus never lived alone. Neither are we to be monks, isolated, living alone, watching tv.

If you are alone, in isolation, reach out to a church community where you live. Go there. Jesus People USA welcomes visitors and those who would live with them. Even the Amish welcome outsiders to come in to their fellowship if they will abide by their ordinances.

As God has led His Church in the past, so He is leading her now. There is no safety without The Lord.

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FORGIVENESS, A WAY OF GOD

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Forgiveness, A Way of God

Forgiveness is a touchy subject. We’re taught in church to forgive others, but it’s difficult to put into practice. I carried around unforgiveness for a family member from childhood into adulthood without even realizing it. That unforgiveness turned into bitterness.

Lord Jesus tells us to forgive others. (Mark 11:25) He adds this: “so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” We are to forgive so that we can be forgive by God. Holding unforgiveness is sin. Sin hurts us and leads to death. (Romans 6:23)

It is especially important to forgive others and repent of unforgiveness while praying. (Mark 11:25)

Mark 11:26 says, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.” So there is a problem between you and God when you do not forgive others.

Who are these others? People from your church, your family, your neighbors. They are policemen, doctors, lawyers, nurses, firemen, businessmen. They are thieves, murderers, and kidnappers.

Some may be more difficult to forgive than others. That is our human nature, but God calls us to be like Him and forgive, just as He forgives us.

On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts IV killed six Amish girls at the West Nickel Mines School, he injured several others before committing suicide. It shocked the country. More astounding was the way the Old Order Amish responded—with forgiveness, toward the dead gunman, his wife, and his parents, who were well connected with the Amish community. The Amish live out the Words of Jesus, especially in the area of forgiveness. They believe that it’s not just a change of heart, but actions too that matter. We’d call that their “fruit.” This happened within a short time after their children died.

The Amish gave money to a charitable fund for Roberts’ children. They attended his funeral. One Amish man spent the first minutes with the gunman’s father, comforting him. They put actions behind their words.

In Amish Grace, the authors write that the Amish know that forgiveness isn’t easy, and that God’s forgiveness of them is tied to their ability to forgive others. “They devote significant energy to train their children in forgiveness.” (pp. 113-114) They must accept God’s will and give up the right of revenge. It is a way of life. (pp.115-116)

The act of forgiveness is unexpected to the world; groups from around the world came to see the Amish and learn about their ability to forgive. Their fruit is a testimony of Jesus.

Matthew 6:12, a verse of The Lord’s Prayer states, “‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’” Forgive our debtors—those who have trespassed against us, in any way, shape or form.

The Lord continues speaking about forgiveness just after His prayer, verses 14-15: “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Corrie ten Boom’s family died in Nazi concentration camps; she alone survived to tell of what God did inside the barbed wire. Corrie later had to travel into Germany where she met face to face with one of her male camp guards. Corrie had to forgive him. He had become a brother in Christ.

Elizabeth Eliot carried on her husband’s missionary work in Ecuador, forgiving the men who murdered him. Those men later became believers, fruit of her work and forgiveness.

An innocent black man, Botham Jean was shot by off duty white female police officer Amber Guyger. Guyger was found guilty in 2019. Botham’s brother, Brandt Jean, testified of his forgiveness for Guyger during her court hearing, saying “I forgive you,” “The best thing for you to do would be to give your life to Christ,” and “I love you.” This too shocked the nation.

Forgiveness is tied not to emotions, but to an act. Forgiveness, a way of God, mends friendships, builds relationships and stops destruction and division.

Have you forgiven?

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ADULTERY, BIGAMY AND GOD

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Tears, Prayers, Kept in Heaven

After exiting the school bus one autumn afternoon, I walked the short dirt road distance to my front door. Inside, my mom waited. The principal of my elementary school had phoned her. She wanted to speak with me about it. I had gone missing at recess.

Next door to my elementary school’s playground was the town cemetery. My paternal grandfather had died during October and he was buried at the east end of the graveyard, not far from the school grounds. I have no memory of this, but Mom said that the “recess lady,” (our neighbor) had searched all over for me, finally finding me next to my grandfather’s grave.

That was fifth grade. My grandpa was the first funeral I’d gone through. No one told me that he had gone to Heaven, only that he’d died. My father never cried, never spoke about it. Grandpa was 54, dead from a heart attack.

In our society we’ve been taught not to cry, especially men.

But Lord Jesus wept about the death of his friend Lazarus when He saw the emotional pain Martha and Mary went through. (John 11:35)

In our society we’ve been taught to repress our feelings, especially men.

But Lord Jesus, alive in the flesh, experienced sadness, he was known as a “man of sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:3)

In this life we go through many problems which affect us emotionally. Emotions left bottled up turn into depression, mental disturbances and even suicide.

Because The Lord has lived this life and experienced its worst, He understands our frame, our weaknesses. Cry when you need to. Show your feelings of sorrow. Let them out. Speak to Lord Jesus and to another safe person about what you’re going through.

Your words are heard by Lord Jesus in Heaven. They come up to Him as incense and are kept in golden bowls. Our hands lifted to Him, He sees as an evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8)

He’s here to catch your tears and put them in His bottle. He acknowledges every one of your tears, recording them in His book. (Psalm 56:8)

Speak to the children in your life about what they’re feeling. Acknowledge them just as God acknowledges us. Reassure them that God is in control. Tell them about where their prayers go and about Heaven.

One afternoon after I was grown and had my own children, my spouse and I pulled back in to the Goodrich cemetery. I wanted to visit my grandparents’ grave one last time before returning south to Florida. I opened the side door of the rental van. My young children, so innocent of death and sorrow, jumped out and ran across the green summer grass shouting “A park! A park!” They loved the peacefulness, the trees, flowers and the nearby pond. A beautiful resting place for souls gone to Heaven.

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SPEND TIME ALONE WITH GOD

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Spend Time Alone With God

As a child I had hiding places, where I would go and spend time alone: floor of my closet, a dry bank of a pond in a swamp, up in a crab apple tree obscured from view by leaves and fruit. In these places I spent time thinking and imagining, contemplating, and once in a while throwing down a crab apple near a pedestrian walking by!

Lord Jesus took time to go up to mountain tops alone, or to a place in the wilderness to pray alone. There He spoke to God the Father and received instructions. (Luke 6:12; Luke 5:15)

Today I do this. I walk early in the morning, praying as I go, talking to The Lord about many things, covering others in prayer, and giving thanks.

During my college years I went to Japan as a missionary. One long weekend, the members of Hallelujah Community Church and I drove up into the mountains for a spiritual getaway. There I went and sat alone on a boulder as big as a golf cart overlooking the valleys and clouds below. God and I met together there.

Another time while in college, I attended a spiritual life retreat at a campground in Southern Michigan. During a hike into a pine forest, we stopped and rested, laying down upon a carpet of dried brownish pine needles, soft as a feather-bed. God and I met together there.

Elijah met with God upon a mountaintop. He received instructions about where to go and who to anoint as king. (1Kings 19)

Paul met with God while in prison. His written letters became a main source of Biblical knowledge. (Bill Bright/CRU.org)

Corrie ten Boom met with God in a Nazi concentration camp. She received a promise of freedom and instructions for the future.

Elizabeth Elliot met with God in the jungles of South America after her husband was murdered. She was able to continue her husband’s missionary work as a single mother of a young child, alone.

Gracia Burnham met with God in terrorist Philippine encampments. Learning endurance, she saw her husband killed, but survived.

Bernadette Todd still meets with God daily from her wheelchair. She has told her story, her testimony to thousands.

God comes to us where we are, no matter the place, condition, or situation. Call to Him from your place of prayer. He will lift up your spirits, give you strength, provide help, provision and positioning. He is the Protector and Healer. There is no other to call to.

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"NEW NORMAL" A LIE, A COUNTERFEIT

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Now Is the Time to be Faithful

If you ask someone from Michigan where they live, they automatically hold up their left hand to show where their hometown is. Michigan is sort of shaped like a mitten. My birthplace was in Goodrich, Michigan, a location on the map of your left hand, just to the left of the lowest joint on the thumb.

Where you’re born is important. It is identification for birth certificates, passports, national heritage, and in the case of Lord Jesus, fulfillment of prophecy. (Micah 5:2) (Matthew 2:1-6)

Growing up in Goodrich, which is outside of Flint, I came to know a bit about the area: the roads, the people, the schools, churches, lakes and rivers. It was no surprise to me that the Flint River was found to be contaminated with lead. Its polluted state was common knowledge many years ago. (Tim Carmody/The Verge)

Neither was the news several years ago that the auto industry was sinking. Those who lived in the midst of it could see what was happening.

But I also knew that Michigan was known for its great beauty and friendly people. Surrounded by Great Lakes, it has been a summer resort state for generations. Today it is promoted as “Pure Michigan.”

Psalm 87:6 states, “The Lord will count when He registers the peoples, ‘This one was born there.’”

God knows where we were born. He determined the location for our good.

But He is more interested in those who are “born again.” Their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Isaiah 4:3; Revelation 3:5) This book will be take out in Jerusalem, when Lord Jesus returns to sit on His throne.

Is your name written in the Book of Life?

Those born of the Spirit, born of God, are to know about the things of God’s Kingdom, just as we know about the things in our hometowns.

We should know how to reach God, our history and heritage, the ways of God, the people of God. The King should be on a first-name basis with each of us. Our citizenship is first in Heaven. (Philippians 3:20) The poisoned places God created (Hell, darkness, realm of the devil) should not be surprises to us and we should know not to eat from the tree of knowledge of evil nor to drink from a polluted river, clinging only to what is good. (Romans 12:9)

We who are born of God enjoy privileges that the world has not received: adoption as sons, grafting into the olive tree whose root is rich, knowledge of God and His glory, benefit of the New Covenant, His river of delights, His protection, provision and providence, His trust, His Word, and His promises. So many things cannot be written!

To whom much has been given, much is required. (Luke 12:48)

During this time of Christian persecution we must look back at what God has already done for us. Remember His Word, His promises and submit to His hand of protection. Now is the time to be faithful. We can see that pastors, many for the first time, are being called to stand for Christ publicly. (Daniel Burke/CNN; Steve West/World) They endangered by rioters, protesters and could be arrested.

We too little sheep must remain faithful as our leaders remain anchored to the cross of Christ.

Are you remaining faithful?

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JESUS IS CALLING DOERS

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon