It is the story of the puppeteer Kevin Clash, who is the voice of Elmo.  He was raised in the projects of Baltimore and loved making puppets as a high school student and performing their magic to children all over the inner city of Baltimore.  He was bullied in HS and was made fun of constantly because this giant kid did not play sports and do what others were doing.

I think of the words of the Catholic Priest Brennan Manning…

‎”A Tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become.”

People missed that in Kevin.
They missed “who he might become!”
I wonder who is better off now…
The bully basketball player or Kevin?

He cited his parents as his encouragement, that kept him puppeteering
despite the comments from Kevin’s peers. And $5 million dollars a year later,
I think Kevin has done “a little” better than the naysayers in his school.

Bullying is a hot topic today.  We need to get our amazing children through that battle.  Usually what happens, is the bullied kid is the genius. He is bullied because he doesn’t fit the “mobs” mold.  If we give them what they need to get through that affliction, it’s usually the bullied child that goes on to do way more than what the so called “popular” ones end up doing. One day the bullies will be calling that child sir and boss.
Parents , don’t let bullies rape your children of their gifts and creativity.
Just because one of our children is not what everyone else thinks he should be….
doesn’t mean he is weird or he is abnormal…..HE JUST  MAY BE ELMO!

“Were you in the city last night?”
Their response “No…”
(because it was in the afternoon).

Word games! 

“Did you steal $100?”
Their response , “No….”
(it was only $50 in their mind).

So because I did not ask specifically they think they are not lying by saying “no” when in actuality they know what I was asking.  It’s games.  You may be able to play games on me because I did not ask the question specifically.  But not Jesus…..

Jesus knows…
Nothing gets by Jesus…
Especially Peter…
It was ignorance vs Omniscience…
Guess Who won?

In reading this year the Weymouth translation of the NT , he does a masterful job in relating the conversation that Jesus and Peter had post resurrection of “Do you love me?”

There is a nuance in the Greek that is hard to catch
It is the interchange of “love” words…
As I was reading the Greek NT you can see the words clearly….
Jesus was asking “do you AGAPE Me?”
Simon kept answering with a different word “You know Lord that I PHILEO You.”
this exchange went back and forth twice.

And then the kicker….
Jesus asks Peter “Do you even PHILEO Me?”
And then it says, “It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time ‘do you even PHILEO Me?’”

Jesus was challenging even the lower love.

The Weymouth translation catches this and gives it such clarity.  Notice the exchange of  “do you love Me?” and Peter’s response of “You are dear to me”

Nothing gets by Jesus…
He challenges us on every level…

You read it and see it for yourself

JOHN 21:15-17
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?” “Yes, Master,” was his answer; “you know that you are dear to me.” “Then feed my lambs,” replied Jesus.
16 Again a second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master,” he said, “you know that you are dear to me.” “Then be a shepherd to my sheep,” He said.
17 A third time Jesus put the question: “Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?” It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, “Am I dear to you?”

GENESIS 30:33 So my honesty will answer for me later…..

There are moments that you will have to leave vindication for later when everything inside of you wants to tell your side now!
There is a pride in me that wants to be understood by everyone RIGHT NOW and to have my situation made right immediately.

I don’t like waiting for later.

Be sure that there is a security in HONESTY.
God has built in honesty and integrity a self correction mechanism.
It’s a slow mechanism but it does work.

The problem is that though honesty is the best policy… it doesn’t allow for your side to come out as quick as you would want.

And many times like Jacob said “my honesty will answer for me later”.

When the time is right, integrity does step up but it’s always later.

Those who live in dishonesty, cheating, hiding, or cover up  only look at the future with fear and and wonder if they will be eventually found out
And those who walk in integrity only look to the future with a hope and faith that they too will be found out but found out finally. Honesty says that I don’t have to defend myself…..but I will be defended.

There is no fear in honesty… just a lot of waiting.

Isaiah 53:2 (THE MESSAGE)
The servant grew up before God– a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.

This verse refers to the physical appearance of Jesus.  I don’t know about you , this verse doesn’t seem to match the head of Jesus on all those paintings?
Anyone with me?

This passage  made me think of a section in Malcolm Gladwell’s book BLINK on the physical appearance of American CEO’s

The average male is 5 foot 9 in.  The average CEO in America is about 6 ft tall.  That means he has 3 inches on the average male.
In the US population 14.5% of all men are 6 ft and taller
Among the CEOs of fortune 500 companies that number is 58%

Even more striking  in the general American population 3.9% of adult men are 6 ft 2 in and taller.  Almost a third of CEOs are 6’2” and taller

Of the tens of millions of American men below 5’6” a grand total of 10 have reached the CEO level that says that being short is more of a handicap than being black or a woman.

An inch is worth an extra $789 a year in salary
That means that a person who is 6 ft tall  and a 5’5” person will make on average $5525 more a year than the shorter man
If you take this over a 30 year career a tall person makes hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the short guy

This was from Malcolm Gladwell’s book “BLINK” on the “Warren Harding Error”
He was 6 feet tall
His speeches were once described as “an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea” but he was tall.

My friend Dr RT Kendall said this about Jesus’ appearance from his book “WHY JESUS DIED”
“The Messiah’s appearance was a great disappointment to all. We like our leaders to look the part. He had no appearance that made people want to follow Him…..The Jews honestly thought that the Messiah would be instantly recognizable, immensely popular and impossible not to notice.”

I think of what Jacob said in Genesis 28:16
“Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it”

One thing is certain….we shall see Him one day. You will see Him.
Every person who has ever lived will see Him.

Wow, God’s ways are really higher than our ways.  We are so tainted by media and the visual
We would have definitely wanted the 6’ 1” Jesus and the  good looking Jesus…
But God did not show up like most preachers dress and look today.
Just watch Christian television and Jesus was no where near to what they look like.
He showed up like your old “woodshop” teacher from high school days
Who would have thought that Mr Babbet would be the Messiah?

John 14:12
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do,
he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

This is such a tough verse to wrap oneself around…
“GREATER WORKS” than Jesus?
Are you kidding me?
Jesus raised the dead…
Jesus multiplied food…
Jesus stopped nature in it’s tracks by talking to it….

So you are telling me greater than that?

I’ve heard this verse in the midst of high octane pentecostal meetings and someone will blurt out in a commissioning service “greater works you will do”….everyone would join in the “amen’s” but I have to say if you cornered any “amen-er” and simply said “what does that mean?”  I’m really not sure any one of them could tell you the answer.

I know I couldn’t.

Thanks for the great Romans expositer and Philadelphia Presbyterian Pastor, Donald Barnhouse.  His Romans commentary was what I cut my teeth on.  While reading him one day, I ran across this in his commentary that dumbed it all down for me.

Sometimes… I just need stuff dumbed down.

Donald Barnhouse explained this verse with this amazing illustration.

“Aboard a US submarine in enemy waters a sailor was stricken with an acute case of appendicitis.  The nearest surgeon was thousands of miles away.  Pharmacist Mate Wheller Lipes watched the seaman’s temperature soar to 106 degrees.  His only hope was an operation or he would die.  Said Lipes, “I have watched doctors do it, I think I could.  What do you say?”   the sailor consented; and in the wardroom, about the size of a train compartment the patient was stretched out  on a table beneath a floodlight.  The mate and assisting officers, dressed in reversed pajamas tops, masked their face with gauze.  The crew stood by  the diving planes to keep the ship steady; the cook boiled water for sterilizing.  A tea strainer served as an antiseptic cone.  A broken handled scalpel was the operating instrument.  Alcohol drained from the torpedoes was the antiseptic.  Bent tablespoons served to keep the muscles open.  After cutting through the layers of muscles the mate took twenty minutes to find the appendix.  Two hours and a half later, the last catgut stitch was sewed, just as the last drop of ether gave out, 13 days later the patient was back to work.  A successful operation.

Admittedly this was a much more magnificent feat than it had been performed by a trained surgeon in a fully equipped operating room of a modern hospital.

(Here goes his amazing explanation)

Study this analogy and you come up with  the real meaning  of Christ’s words “greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father….” For Christ to work directly on a soul to quicken and bring out of death into life is great…. but for Him to do the same thing through us is an even greater work.”

Now that makes sense to me.
I can wrap my puny mind around that.
The “greater work” is not that the work is greater (than NT works) but what makes it greater is the rough and unconventional instruments He is using and yet it still happens.
Jesus goes to the Father and He decides to use us to get the job done.
You and I are the unconventional instruments our Master Surgeon uses  and when the operation is all done….you don’t praise the scalpel but the One Who used the scalpel.  We have too much scalpel worship and not enough Physician praise; but that is another topic for another time.

FASTING

(JUST BEING HONEST)

FASTING…the word sends shivers down my spine.  Not because of some spiritual thing happening to me; it’s because I love food so much, that thought of going without it sends my body into convulsions.

One of my favorite Bible expositors of all time, D Martyn Lloyd Jones, said this about fasting.

“Fasting, if we conceive of it truly, must NOT be confined to the question of food and drink; fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose. There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled. That is fasting.”

I agree with Dr Lloyd Jones’ words….
I think you can fast ESPN as well as a meal.
I think you can fast Fantasy football and golf.

The goal is not a hunger strike.
The goal is to provide more time to seek God.
It is whatever opens up the door for more prayer.

The first century meal was a production.
It took hours , and it was un-rushed.
There was no fast food at that time.
To fast a meal was to open up the door for more time.

Jesus said in Mark 9 that “these only come out by prayer and fasting” and the “these” are demons. Now if I’m a demon, then I would want to hang out with those people that are unable to physically fast due to a medical condition.  It doesn’t make sense to me.

To fast is to create greater space to pray.  God hears us because we are His children not because we are voluntarily starving ourselves.  And what Father would not give greater attention to his child who is creating more space to be with him and to talk to him.

A brief exhortation to my doctor and nurse friends who help the sick and who love Jesus.

I love what Paul says about Dr. Luke.
They had a very close relationship because of being travel companions throughout the book of Acts.
He calls him “the beloved physician”
That adjective is so incredible.
The word means to be the favorite, well liked, the famous one, the dearly loved.

Basically Paul was saying , “if you wanted a doctor at that time , every one wanted Luke”. Luke was the one you wanted to be your family doctor…the kids loved him and the adults loved him also.
He was everyone’s favorite

The one thing that doctors don’t get sometimes is the element of love and gentleness that needs to accompany truth. I understand the harsh realities of sickness and the need to disclose to patients those realities, but let’s also have a focus on BELOVED  and NOT JUST physician.

“Beloved” is not popularity, it’s making people a priority. It’s understanding people; and not just doing your job but going an extra step with those you treat.

Check out this research from Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” that I read last year
BELOVED PHYSICIAN made me think back to this one section.

Wendy Levinson a medical researcher recorded hundreds of conversations between a doctor and their patients.
Roughly half of the doctors have been sued at least twice. There was one difference in the research…
The surgeons who never have been sued spend more than 3 minutes longer with each patient than those who had been sued. It was 18.3 min vs 15 min. The difference was in how they talked to their patients.

Psychologist Nalini Ambady took the results to another level…
She took the interviews and took out almost all but 2 ten second clips of the doctor talking.
Then she removed recognizable words and you were left with just tones.
She felt you could tell which ones spent longer with their patients just on tones.
And found out she could predict with ease which doctors got sued and the ones that did not.

Being “beloved” doesn’t mean that you don’t do your job; but you do your job loving people.

The ones that are beloved are the ones that love
That is true for anyone in any field

And if you don’t know how to say either of these phrases then you are living a sad life.
We need people so we need to say “thank you”
We are not perfect so we will need to say “I’m sorry” a lot
But sometimes it means a lot to add just a little power to a thank you or an apology.

It’s amazing how big the word “so” is…

Something happens when you say ….

“thank you SOOOO much” or “I am SOOO sorry”

There is a punch to it
There is a power to it
There is feeling to it

I am learning more and more that just the extra two letters in a text and in an email really helps.

Those words carry emotion with it
You don’t believe me?
Leave it out of this verse and see….

“For God _____ loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son….”

You know what goes there…..SO!

And “SO” makes this verse powerful

I’VE GOT A FUNNY FEELING ABOUT ALL THIS ADD STUFF

I am amazed that if any child is active today and has a short attention span, they are immediately labeled as ADD or ADHD.  Active, short attention span….??? C’mon folks that is the definition of “children” in the dictionary. And I have 4 of them.

I have this funny notion that since our society has looked  down on spanking and because  schools have removed corporal punishment, there seems to be a strong coincidence with the rise of these new disorders.

Less discipline then more diagnosis and new capital letters. I want to capitalize letters too…..K-I-D-S.

I would also add to the list the loss of children wanting to be outside playing .They have lost the desire to be out of the house and the ability to be creative because of  game systems. The games have taken away the imagination of our children.  Where we could find incredible uses for pieces of wood, dad’s tools and trees…. now we just stare at screens.  No one builds a tree house anymore.  We would rather arm ourselves with automatic assault weapons and walk through the streets of some middle eastern country with our fellow naval seals and we are only just 10 years old.

Ritalin is our new and easy answer. Ritalin I believe has replaced spanking and playing outside. It so much easier to give medication than to raise children.

You may think of me as simplistic and insensitive to those who really have this disorder. It’s not meant to be.  I just have a funny feeling about all this ADD stuff.

“Wearing headphones or earbuds for an hour increases bacteria in your ear 700 times”

This is on the wall of my son’s science room at school. It’s a  problem  when people  see that as the predominant reason not to wear headphones. I think it’s more serious than that…. Take the earbuds out and let’s talk!

We have an unspoken rule in our home…..NO EARBUDS ON ANYONE!  Why?  Bacteria 700 times? Are we a family that sees ear hygiene as a priority? Nope…..There’s a bigger reason.  We want to teach our children to dialogue.

We are raising a generation of children that are locked in their own world. I am so tired of trying to engage with young people that only know unintelligible responses of grunts to questions.

Ipods have been an amazing invention but like anything , it can have its abuse. They teach children to listen but never question. It teaches them to be silent but never speak up.  It teaches them to be a receiver but not a giver. That’s is way more dangerous than bacteria.  Ipods are silencing our children. We no longer get to hear their questions, their worries, their fears or their opinions.

Do you wonder why your children don’t talk to you?  It’s not that they don’t have anything to say; it’s because they have been silenced.  Silenced by things in their ears not stuff over their mouth.  Someone figured out if you can put noise in their ears then you can close their mouth.

Parents, teachers, youth pastors, children pastors…..I “BESEECH YOU”(a strong Pauline word) to get the headphones off your children.  If you open up their ears then you open up their mouths…

AND IF YOU OPEN UP THEIR MOUTHS THEN YOU GET TO HEAR THEIR HEARTS.

Matthew 12:34 “….for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…”

I think if we update this KJV language , Jesus would say in the TDV (Tim Dilena Version which is not very reliable)….. ”take the headphones off and start talking with each other and then when you talk you get to hear how cool they really are because you are hearing their core self”.