Our Calendar

Numbers 29:1“ ‘On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.' "

     Often our calendars are important to us. They keep us on track with our days. They remind us of important moments and celebrations. They help us to not forget anniversaries and birthdays! As a husband, I am thankful for this!
     But calendars can also become our slave masters. They can drive us and hold us captive. They can hedge us in and confine our activities in a way that limits our ability to stay present in the moments we have with those around us. We can always be running to the next thing, rushing ahead in hopes that the next thing will bring us satisfaction (hopefully).
     The Scriptures tell us that the LORD is in charge of the calendar. He created light and darkness (Genesis 1:3) thus marking out the time frame for a single day. He put the stars in the sky marking out different seasons. (Genesis 1:14-18) He created ordered worship around days, weeks, and years. He highlighted the passing of seasons various feasts and festivals, times when His people gathered to celebrate and remember what the LORD had done on their behalf. (see Numbers 28-29)
     Who has the rights to put events on your calendar? Do you give the LORD permission to add events? Do you let Him order your days, weeks, and years?
     Or do you fill the calendar yourself, or with your boss's help, or with your spouse and children, and then see if you can fit the LORD in in some of the empty spaces that are left?
     Maybe it is time to listen to His schedule first, and after He has placed His priority in our lives, then we can see how to fit our things in the places that are left. We say He is LORD, but do we live it with our schedules, our calendars?

How Long Is That Trip Going To Take!

We can take distance for granted. You hop on the highway and at 70mph it only takes an hour to get to where we need to go. A 400 mile trip takes 6 hours, right? Or if you are out West, it only take 5 hours at 85mph. And that is if you observe the speed limits. And we all stick strictly to the speed limits, wink, wink.

So if you have looked at a map of Okinawa you have discovered that the main island is only 66 miles long. The whole chain of hundreds of islands which make up Okinawa Prefecture (their equivalent of a state) is over 600 miles long. We are on the main island. Sixty six miles long. Not that far, right?

Well, that was before we arrived. Sixty six miles. It shouldn't take us more than 1 1/2 hours to get from bottom to top. We should be able to see everything easily.

And then we arrive. The main road North and South where we are is three lanes each direction. And this is the populated section. When we get away from the population the road narrows to two lanes, and then to one.

And the traffic lights. Did I mention there are 1.4 million people on this island with what seems like 1.6 million cars! And I think maybe a million traffic lights.

Being from Florida we are familiar with Snowbirds and the traffic they bring. We are all happy when they head back up north. We can breathe as we drive. The lines are gone.

Jesus was walking with two disciples after His resurrection. They were still struggling with trying to understand the events of the previous week. Jesus opens the Scripture to them in answer to a question. He explains from the Old Testament how the events of Jesus' life fit with Scripture. But I don't know if the journey that day seemed long or short.

This I do know, after Jesus revealed Himself to them and then disappeared, something about their journey became evident. They said that their hearts had been warmed as Jesus had talked with them on the way. (Luke 24:32) We have no indication that they noticed the warming at the time. They only noticed it when the significance became evident. Jesus had changed everything.

Many of us have experience this shift in time. We have been talking with someone as we traveled and then we remark, "Where did the time go?" You arrive at the destination without really being aware that time has passed.

We have also experienced the "are we there yet" of kids, who seem to make every minute traveling seem twice as long.

I don't know whether it will be a short or long journey here on the Island, but I do know that traveling it with my wife, and with the LORD's presence will make the journeys seem short.

Everything on the Line

Mark 14:60-62

      There are moments in life when everything seems to hang in the balance. All the tubes are hooked up, the machine is beeping in the background, the people in bright garments are gathered around the bed, family holding hands and praying. Beep, beep, beep. Beeeeeeeeeee.

      The clock ticks on the scoreboard, five, four, three. The ball is in the air, floating as time seems to stand still. Championship rings at stake. Test results are in today, just a phone call away. Why won’t that phone ring already! College acceptance decision letter has been mailed, due any day. Where is that mailman?

      Jesus’ life is the line. The leaders are trying to frame Him, to create a charge that will stick, a charge worthy of His death. But everything they have tried has failed. They can’t even manufacture any evidence.

      But since this isn’t a fair trial, the corrupt judge steps into the fray. All the testimony hasn’t agreed. The prosecution’s case has fallen apart, and yet the judge wants Jesus to answer the jumble of accusations. What’s to answer, since they don’t say anything. It is just noise. And the judge knows it.

      Jesus chooses to stay silent at this moment. He knows anything He says would be misconstrued. There is no need to defend against garbage. And even if He could defend Himself, He knows death is just around the corner. This is the reason He came into the world. He won’t avoid it. So He stays silent. He doesn’t answer the jumble of charges.

      And then the high priest asks Him a direct question about His identity. Is Jesus the Messiah, God in the flesh? This would be the perfect chance for Jesus to tell them they got it all wrong. He could have answered that He was just a man, a foolish prophet who got a big head and began believing His own propaganda. He could backtrack on everything He said about life, God, Himself, the religious leaders. But He didn’t. He could have recanted. He could have saved His own life.

      But Jesus tells the whole Truth about Himself. Jesus is not afraid of the Truth. And neither should we be. Even if the Truth leads to our death, we don’t need to be afraid of it. Jesus ups the ante. He declares that He is the fulfillment of all their Messianic hopes and dreams. He is worthy of sitting in the position of power in Heaven because His rightful place of rule is heaven not earth.

      By answering ‘yes’ to the high priest’s question, Jesus has sealed His fate. His death is but a few breaths away. They have the ammo they think they need, even though blasphemy isn’t a crime in the eyes of Rome. Rome could care less is someone claimed to be God. All they cared about was law and order. And the claim stated by a carpenter from the backwater town of Nazareth certainly wouldn’t be perceived by Rome as a threat.

Start Time

Mark 13:32-34

      Some people just can’t seem to show up on time. No matter the importance of the events, even weddings, some people have their person, internal clocks set in such a way that they are always late. For some it is an unconscious thing. They don’t even realize it. They aren’t in a hurry, and just get sidetracked. They live in a bubble where not time exists, or so it seems.

      But the funny thing about these types of people is that when they have to wait for someone else, they get impatient. When the lateness gets in the way of what they are wanting to do, then suddenly they notice that the other person is three minutes late. There are few people I have come across in my life that like to be held up by another person. We all think our time is valuable.

      The exact timing of the events described in our passage is undefined. We don’t know the day. This means the event isn’t driven by some celestial event, even blood moons. There is no calendar on earth that can help pinpoint the climax in advance. This held true to the destruction of Jerusalem and it holds true to the Second Coming of Jesus. The universe is not a clock ticking on a wound up spring that will someday run out of energy to continue ticking. We can’t locate the spring and determine how many days we have left.

      Many well-meaning people have tried to set the day of Jesus’ return. Every one of them has been disappointed when the day arrived. We can’t know the day or hour. It is a fact that only the Father knows at the time Jesus was answering the question. Remember, Jesus set aside some of the rights and privileges of being Deity when He added humanity to His being while He fulfilled His mission here on earth. When He walked here, He didn’t use all the knowledge that He had. He chose instead to rely on the Holy Spirit to give Him direction and guidance. The Holy Spirit spoke at various times, giving Him insight.

      So we can’t know the exact timing of these events. But that doesn’t mean the events will take us by surprise. No one is surprised by a surprise birthday party that they know is coming that evening. When you know it is coming, in the exact moment it happens you might be startled, but not surprised. Your reaction will be very different than for someone who had no idea it was coming. People have had heart attacks when the shock is too great.

      But Jesus return won’t take us by surprise. We know it is coming. That is why it is important to stay alert, always watching, always ready. We can watch for the signs He has outlined in the Scriptures. We can pay attention to His promptings. We can continue to demonstrate His care and concern for His people and those who don’t yet know the Good News that they can be set free from sin’s grip on their lives.

      We know everything we need to know about the end times. Watch! We don’t need more details. Be alert! We don’t need any charts, graphs, timelines, pre-mid-post, pre-post-amillennial. Don’t be deceived! Be ready.