Look! Up in the Sky » Jesus

The Boy Jesus in the Temple of the Mind

garydrobinson — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:08:28 +0000

Here’s a poem from my friend, Lena Jasper.

Shaded eyes
Racing head
Late to wake
Late to bed
Ticking thoughts
Never stop
Weary heart
Soon to pop
Lying friends
Wicked deeds
Careless sex
Lack of sleep
Dreams of love
Never come
Rueful sighs
Come undone
Wasted years
Dark with drugs
Judgement calls
Vain and smug

Long ago
In my dreams
Was a boy
Came in sleep
Showed me joy
Couldn’t keep
When I woke
He was gone
Every time
Fled with dawn
Still I hope
Every night
He would come
Bring me light
Take it back
All the pain
That I’ve felt
That I gave
Boy of love
Keep me strong
Wait for you
All night long

The future shapes the present

garydrobinson — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:19:21 +0000

Because we hope in the Lord, that future affects our present. The future shapes what we do in this present world. It shapes what we are to the world in the present.

Paul says we’re going to be with the Lord, always with the Lord. Elsewhere, he says, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. What does it mean to be “with the Lord”? What did it mean to people who were with Him when He walked this earth?

Ask that woman who gave Jesus water at the well. She gave him a drink and he—he touched a nerve. That well became a holy place, didn’t it? She knew who she was, what she’d done. Now she didn’t care. She had to run back into town to tell about Him.

Ask that man who had the devil in him what it meant to be with the Lord. Ask that little boy who had his five loaves and two fish turned into the biggest picnic you ever heard of!

What was it like to be with the Lord? Ask the widow whose only son he raised from the dead smack in the middle of the street. Ask Mary and Martha, who walked with him to the grave, saw the tears roll down his face, heard him shout, Lazarus, come out!—just before the world turned upside down and right side up again.

To be with the Lord makes a difference, doesn’t it? Now, listen, beloved church, we waiting on the Parousia, His coming, His undeniable presence. But, the future is spilling back into the present, isn’t it? Isn’t He already present among us? Of course He is, through the Holy Spirit, who enables us to be like Him to one another and to the world.

Delivered: The wrath of God, pt. 2

garydrobinson — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:39:58 +0000

My sister Patty and I used to write on my mother’s cigarettes: Smoke kills, etc. Bless her heart, Mom didn’t stop us. She actually let us get away with defacing her property. She didn’t want to smoke, but she couldn’t stop.

If you can see that a person is doing something to hurt himself, do you do anything about it? If you care about them, you’ll at least say something, won’t you?

We see the wrath of God at work in people all around us. We see them like flies trapped in the web, struggling, sweating, desperate. Why do we say nothing? We’re afraid of offending someone by saying something about Jesus. Why don’t we say anything? The wrath of God is here, working, and coming. But God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life.

What halts the course of the wrath of God in our lives? The Gospel. “Jesus…delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).

God is just: The wrath of God, pt. 1

garydrobinson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:00:41 +0000

Read 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9.

I know the idea of the preaching of the wrath of God isn’t popular these days. But, then, I don’t think it really ever has been. We’d much rather believe in a God of love who just loves because He is love and what the world needs now is love, sweet love and love is all you need.

God is loving, beloved, but He’s no fool. The fact is, without the wrath of God, what is the love of God worth? Can’t we do as well loving each other on our own? I mean, if there’s no wrath, no anger, no hell then we don’t need God to love, to forgive, to comfort. We can do as much for each other, can’t we? But if we are playing for higher stakes, if human life is a game it’s possible to lose and lose big time, then we need a love that will save us from wrath. We need the shed blood of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross to blow the hatch and get us off this sinking’ ship!

Now, here comes good news that really is good news! Jesus will save believers from that wrath. That’s what we believe. That’s what we preach and teach. That’s our hope.