It’s a crazy revelation to bleed the grace of Christ as though being abhorred was a requirement. The tongue that speaks of forgiveness is the same tongue that pulled in the lip of forbidden in the kiss of sin. The contrast is a testament and a challenge. The contrast reveals the false. If false your god, then that’s all you see.

Let the mouth of the sinner sing and ignore the screams accusing heresy.

The truth will not be muffled. Every good thing that is lost, let it be lost. If you don’t sing, the rocks will. Are you not smarter than a rock? Blood cries out from the ground. Why won’t you?

“Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot.” -Charles Spurgeon

She was telling her story. He saved her, He forgave her, and she was amazed. She knew how it sounded and she knew she had witnesses. But her witnesses denied what they saw for the sake of the punishment and she was alone. They called out to Him, “Rebuke her, Father.”

‘And he answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if [she] should hold [her] peace, the stones would immediately cry out.’ -Jesus in Luke 19:40 KJV

“As long as I have breath to lift my voice…the rocks shall not cry out in my place.”

Her feet are aching from standing all day and the wind is a cold oppressor slapping her face like she doesn’t matter. She hides her hands in her coat sleeves with just a key sticking out to make the climb into her freezing car faster.

Her grocery store choices are in opposite directions. The expensive one is on her way home. Her fatigue wins and she pulls into the parking lot. Her ten dollar budget isn’t enough for the milk and peanut butter gluttons in her house. Food shouldn’t have to be so hard to come by.

She used to make cookies, candies, and pies to hug the holidays and all of it’s wrappings. They’re lucky to have a tree. What good is a tree that dwarfs the presents?

Why is this holiday so messed up? Who made the rules and why should kids think that Santa skips some houses while he overloads others?

She’s never believed in Santa. He’s not even part of her children’s lives at home, but it’s an unavoidable question in the hesitant dance of their eyes. Their excitement is touchable and they have no idea how hard it is on her.

She finishes her shopping, doubling her budget, and making her fight the guilt of overspending with the rebellion against being sorry for getting candy canes and fresh fruit.

Defiance clenches her jaw. ”We can at least have candy canes.”

Almost like an immediate reprimand, she was back under the cruel thumb of the wind. Only this time, the bags carrying her guilt drug her hands out of her sleeves of safety. She imagined the bitter cold making them old and worn. A poor woman’s hands.

That was the day she began having ‘the talk’ with herself. ‘The Talk’ that she is going to have to come to terms with who she is. The poverty is going to age her faster than her heart. She has reached her entire life. She has stretched past her circumstances out of the determined belief that she will, one day, have the life she wants. She has pushed herself beyond every boundary life has put in front of her, and now she wonders, “For what?”

“The Talk” was to weaken her hope so that she won’t be so disappointed and sad all the time.

Oh, she’s sad. All the time sad.

She smiles, genuinely, though. She has things to be happy about and she’s good at finding them. They help her catch her breath while she rests for the next lunge. She counts her blessings: Her kids. Her love. They have a warm roof. They have clothes that still work. They have shoes that still fit. They’re healthy and clean.

They have peanut butter and candy canes.

These are such good, good things. They’re the little things made big.

So, “The Talk” isn’t winning. It can’t when she takes it one day at a time. She learns something on her drive home. She learns it’s the little things that get you through the day. Disappointment takes a very long time to completely consume you. Disappointment can’t eat you alive today.

It’s always ‘today’.

If you can counter disappointment with the little things enough to get through today, then you are one day better off than you were the day before.

It’s not much, but it will get her through today.

One exchange between the disciples and Jesus that I find interesting is found in John 9. The group of men passed a man who was born blind and they asked Jesus:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” -John 9:2

That was how things worked back then. Sin, either the sin of a parent or the sin of a person, could be the cause of bad things happening to people. Many religions still believe this. They call it karma.

Jesus answered them, showing them that bad things happen for a bigger purpose. It’s about God, not about the sin.

“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” -John 9:3

Jesus made people think outside the box.

Jesus said that ‘the works of God’ would be displayed in him. More than the miraculous healing happened in this story.

When the Pharisees found out that Jesus healed him, they said that He couldn’t be from God because He sinned in order to heal the man. He healed Him on the Sabbath.

Jesus defied religious tradition.

Almost everyone doubted the man’s healing.

The religious leaders questioned everyone, including the healed man’s parents. His parents believed what happened, they had no choice, but they were too afraid to go against the religious grain to say it was true.

“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)” -John 9:20-22

They were afraid of being kicked out of their church if they admitted to what they knew Jesus did.

The religious leaders went back to the healed man and told him that in order to give glory to God, he had to change his story.

“Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” -John 9:24

They called Jesus a sinner because he did things out of their order. They were the authority on what is of God and what wasn’t and they deemed the way Jesus did things as ‘not of God.’

They questioned him about how, exactly Jesus healed him. And the man did his best to answer them. They were pretentious and arrogant toward him. He shared what Jesus did for him, but was not able to make them get it.

“If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” -John 9:33

While he was trying to use their own understanding of how God works, they belittled him saying:

“You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. -John 9:34

They didn’t like what he had to say. It contradicted their authority. It contradicted their religion. It contradicted the very thing that set them above everyone else, so they ‘cast him out’.

When Jesus heard what the religious leaders did to him, He found him and asked:

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” -John 9:35

All this man knew is that Jesus was from God and He healed Him. He didn’t know who ‘the Son of Man’ was, but if the healer believed in Him, then he would, too.

“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” -John 9:36

This is my favorite part. Did he already know? How could every part of his body not be ripping from him and leaning in to this flesh and blood manifestation of his creator?

“You have seen him,” answered Jesus, “and it is he who is speaking to you.” (John 9:37)

“Lord, I believe.” (John 9:38)

How could he not? Jesus made it impossible to deny.

“For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” -John 9:39

That’s an interesting twist. He made a point to reveal the Great Reversal. The least greatest, the greatest least; the last first and the first last. He ‘sinned’ to reveal Himself to the blind and utterly blinded the one’s who usually see.

The Pharisees were like gnats, always hanging around the fruit, trying to speed up the spoil with their constant cynical and antagonistic questioning.

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ”Are we also blind?” -John 9:40

Yes. Yes, you are.

If you actually heard the words of God as though you had something new to learn, you wouldn’t be in the wrong even though the newly revealed truth puts you in the wrong. The fact that you think you know everything well enough to not have anything new to learn makes you blind. Do you think it’s some coincidence that the truth comes from someone you don’t respect or even like? It’s almost like Someone is using every side of the grater to either shred your pride or make you fight with your own self-righteousness. It’s not just to mess with you, it’s a thermometer. Are you boiling? If so, then you need the medicine.

Jesus said to them, ”If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” -John 9:41

All of this happened to ‘display the works of God.’ It shows how things happen.

• Jesus defied religious tradition to the point of being called a ‘sinner’.
• Many people will doubt the healing.
• Some people are too afraid to speak up when it goes against the grain.
• Those who do, stand a chance of being kicked out of their church.
• Self-righteous people will use God’s name and your desire to glorify Him to manipulate you into submission to them.
• God uses the most unlikely (unworthy?) to reveal His truth.
• Self-righteous people will belittle you if you don’t cave in to their version.
• Jesus made the blind man see before he believed in Him.  
• If you know you have more to learn, you’re guiltless.
• If you think you know it all, you’re guilty of what you don’t know.

You have to admit that you are blind. If you’re blind, He can make you see. If you think you’re not blind, then you’ll always be blind. Only crazy people don’t think they’re crazy.

I’ve written about religious bullies before. They exist. They position themselves between the you and the Cross. The constant feeling of disapproval as they wiggle their way into making you feel like their approval is a requirement. I think most people have felt this way at some point. It’s just that church people can be the worst. There is no real sanction for people who think they are acting on behalf of God. It’s a nightmare if someone on a religious power kick doesn’t know who He is.

Have you ever been given a bunch of instructions to accomplish before you were allowed back into good graces only to get the sinking feeling that they don’t want you back? It looks like a set up to make it appear that they’re ‘working with you’ to cover their butts, and you are a rat in a cage.

Here is how you know that you are being bullied. It just takes one check on the list to qualify.:

1. terror has been invoked (no terror like the constant threat of eternal damnation)
2. you are belittled, often in front of others (efforts impugned, etc.)
3. excessive supervision (micro-managing)
4. blame is entirely on you (no one else did anything wrong)
5. your opinions or questions have been overridden or brushed away
6. your responsibility has been removed
7. you are given demands that you cannot meet and/or the demands change without your knowledge, and you are reprimanded when you fail to measure up
8. you have been ostracized or marginalized or excluded and no one will talk to you directly
9. your failures have been spread in rumors that morph with lies
10. requests for change, training, or leave have been denied

This list is a collaboration of information from various government and civic publications regarding bullying. It’s a huge problem that has received a lot of attention in our society and it eerily resembles what many experience in their churches.

The question(s) I’m exploring in my own head have to do with the difference between ‘church and state’. As I roll this around in my head, I have to wonder if God ever intended for His name to be used to terrorize people. God calls people out of their darkness with the love of His Son on the Cross. Not the scream of hell on their neck.

1. God doesn’t terrorize people with hell, He sent His son to remove the threat.
2. God doesn’t belittle people, He gives them His robe and jewels (prodigal son’s father).
3. God doesn’t shackle people, He sets them free
4. God took your blame
5. God identifies Himself with you (Jesus became a man, he knows.)
6. God doesn’t render you useless, He gives you a purpose
7. God met His own demands on you in Jesus
8. God excludes no one
9. God has forgotten your failures
10. God equips you with the Holy Spirit, gives you a new heart, and sets you free

We need to be less like domineering tyrants and more like God.

Read what Jesus had to say to a group of Pharisees who didn’t like His actions, company He kept, or the love He showed:

“Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. You load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. You have taken away the key ofknowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” -excerpts pulled from Luke 11:37-53

Then He walked out. (I’m picturing a microphone drop)

He was upset.

As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things,  lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. -Luke 11:53

If they did it to Jesus, they’re going to do it to you. Don’t worry about them. Seriously. Even if you made your own bed of shame, clean your sheets and get on with it. Do what you can to make amends and, if it’s not good enough for them, then leave. I know that this is all hard to hear when it is your entire life.

Keep reading in Luke. Chapter 12 quotes Jesus warning people of not letting the poison (leaven) ruin you (bread).

After that He says:

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” -Luke 12:4-7

Further down (I’m on a roll):

“And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” -Luke 12:11-12

I guess I just need to close this by saying: Look at Jesus! You can trust Him. He loves you to no end and He will not leave you to fend for yourself. Read the scriptures. They all point to Him and He is your best ally, He is your best defense. There is more in those scriptures that can set you free than anyone can say to condemn you. Remember the basics: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Whoever believes in Him will not die. You will have eternal life.

Don’t ever believe anyone who tries to take that away from you. And please remember, God can change anyone’s heart. He changed yours didn’t He? You can never count anyone out because He doesn’t. You don’t have to be around them, but don’t give up hope just yet. All the evidence isn’t in.