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Lu Su
Toy Wonders, Inc.
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God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
Finding God From the Dark Side (Conclusion)
By Lu Su
"And though I am a committed Christian, I believe that everyone has the right to their own religion — be you Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim, I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior." -Stephen Colbert.
So if there are "infinite paths" in finding God (Jesus Christ) as a person who saves, it's probably wise to review what we need saving from. . Today let's look at path Jesus took when he first started his three year ministry that has now influenced every race and culture on Earth. The path Jesus took, did lead him to encounter the dark side.
I don't know if most people know this, but before Jesus started his ministry program he attended boot camp. Like soldiers thousands of years ago and today, the training is typically conducted in a remote location, away from the common distractions of the world. It typically physically and mentally challenging too. But the training is meant to build discipline and to train up the mind and body to stay focused, no matter how difficult the circumstance become. In the end, it's to prepare the person for a bigger mission.
A colleague of mine told me about his experience while he was in boot camp. I'm sure it wasn't as funny back then as it is now. But the story went like this. After completing a physically exhausting hike that day, all the young cadets looked forward to "lights out" and a warm bunk. No sooner had he fallen asleep, the drill sergeant barged into the barracks, clicked on the lights, started screaming at the young and exhausted cadets to get up and out.
"Get outside now, I lost my sewing needle. Go find it!" So they go from a warm bunk to the freezing cold, barefoot, wearing just their underwear, and looking for the drill sergeant's stupid pin. After about 30 minutes or so, after the search party was fully awake and shivering from the cold, the sergeant would call off the search party. "Good news men," while the sergeant held up the needle in the air. "I found it!" he would say with a toothy grin while producing the pin in between two fingers. "You can all return to your bunks and get some sleep."
What seemed to be only a minute of sleep, the really loud and unpleasant man returned and repeated the drill. It was one of those situations where you were so tired, the natural reaction was to want to quit or cry (or both). Once again the men were outside in the freezing cold looking for the sergeant's stupid sewing needle. This drill repeated throughout the entire night. My colleague recalled that either the 3rd or 4th session of this sleep depravation exercise (torture), one soldier showed some entrepreneurial skills.
Only after about a minute of "searching", the enterprising soldier holds up a needle and screams out "Sarge, I found it!"
"What? You found it? the sergeant exclaimed in disbelief. The soldier was resourceful and had brought one out with him. "Bring it here. Let me see that!" After examining the needle for a few seconds he screams out, "This isn't my needle. My needle is a little shorter than this one!" To everyone's dismay they heard, "Now we're going to stay out extra long until we find the real one." Much easier for the sergeant to take, who was was dressed warm clothes, boots and a parka.
Jesus attended boot camp out in the desert by himself (Matthew 4). His training was also grueling. Being fully God and fully man at the same time meant that Jesus had limitations like us. For one, He could only be at one place at one time. Being fully human also meant that He would also get hungry and tired just like us. Some of the depravation exercises included fasting (not eating) for 40 days. Realize that many men will die without food in about 30 days. For Jesus to go 40 days, meant he was pushing the envelope on what a physical body can withstand.
It was during this time, the darkest of dark characters (aka Lucifer or Satan) comes to have a conversation with Jesus. This age old acquaintance of Jesus encourages him to join him (join me and together we'll rule on the dark side.) But fortunately, that didn't happen. Though physically weak, you would think this would be an opportune time to physically attack Jesus. But Satan knew a direct attack against a being that controls both time and space would never be successful. So he uses the age old tactic of, "You earned and deserve this...." Satan uses an age old tactic that has sent many men down a self destructive path. It's a simple and easy path to get onto where you mis-prioritize your interests over God's.
One day I would like to go over in detail the three different allurements Satan used. Realize the same destructive habits that worked on men and women thousands of years ago, continue to still work perfectly well today. But the important thing to learn from the exchange between Jesus and the dark side was that Jesus fended off all three attacks successfully. Jesus does so by quoting scripture (didn't even need a wand). So I find it interesting that just like Harry Potter movies, words (specifically God's words) are used to defend oneself against the dark side.
With tuition being so high these days and scheduling issues, enrolling in Hogwarts and taking several courses on Defense Against the Dark Arts just isn't practical for most of us. But fasting from noise and electricity for just 15 minutes a day to read the Scriptures, could do wonders in our resistance against the dark arts.
Upon finishing boot camp, Jesus officially crosses the start line and begins His full time ministry. Realize this mission (ministry) was to seek and conquer back what was lost. But instead of using a sword and establishing no fly zones, Jesus uses diplomacy. On His heralded first arrival, Jesus uses words and peaceful actions to conquer people from the inside (their hearts).
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
-Isaiah 42:1-4
But young men and women, learn this: Against a stronger opposing force, the time they will allow for diplomacy to work is limited. It is important that you understand this concept. A stronger opposing force especially with an agenda to take back what was originally theirs, will only permit diplomacy (words) to work for a certain amount of time. I know it's often a pain to learn from history, but remember the flood (Matthew 24:38) and the former city of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15)? When evil gets out of hand, even God's very long patience can wear thin.
For those of you who think the flood story and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is just fiction, realize that Jesus does NOT refer to either events as a myth. But if you cannot learn from ancient history (that diplomacy is only given a finite amount of time to work), perhaps you can learn from 20th century history: Japanese into China, Nazis into Europe, Falkland Islands, Kuwait, Bosnia and Iraq. But If you are unable to learn from 20th century history, perhaps you can try a 21st century experiment. Just don't pay your taxes and your mortgage and see what happens. You'll see that our government and banks will try diplomacy first, but you'll see that their diplomacy won't go on indefinitely.
So back to Jesus' early steps. After boot camp, He went to this town with water front property. Capernaum is located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. According to the Gospel of Luke, this was the home town for the apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, as well as the tax collector Matthew. If you were to plot Jesus' three year mission, you would see that Capernaum was more or less the home base for operations.
Jesus starts teaching the the synagogue in Capernaum. He performs many miracles in this town, starts to gather His motley crew, and beings to gain some notoriety.
I believe that the vast majority of people who have not read the Bible are under the impression that Jesus was this religious figure who performed some miracles and spread joy, love and peace wherever he went. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. In general, everyone is for peace. We Americans know this concept well; we love peace too ......that is as long as you do it OUR way.
But Jesus spoke about the arrival of a new kingdom (i.e. the "kingdom of God"). The last time I checked, a kingdom is ran by a king and typically comes with a new set of game changing rules. For those already comfortable in their own ways, neither this new message nor its messengers will be well received. Let's look at the first recorded sermon Jesus preached. This occurred in his home town of Nazareth in the Galilee region.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. -Luke 4:14-30
So basically after Jesus preaches his first sermon in his hometown, the people in attendance get so angry that they wanted to hurl Jesus off a cliff. Jesus probably would have not gotten the crowd into a frenzy if He just quoted the scriptures and didn't expand upon it by adding his own commentaries. It wasn't the fact that two of the last prophets God sent did little for their own people; but what ruffled their feathers greatly was Jesus' statement "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.".
Jesus is quoting Isaiah, who wrote that prophecy more than 700 years before Jesus incarnated (God becomes man). Pretty much every Jew back then would have been familiar with this passage because it pointed to a Messiah (The Christ) that would come and fulfill what Isaiah had prophesied about. "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." was another way of saying,"I'm the Dude." But back then, claims of divinity was considered sacrilege and punishable by death.
But there is something very interesting about Jesus' first recorded sermon. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, but tweaks and omits a bunch of stuff. Below I have put up what Jesus said versus what Isaiah said side by side. See for yourself the differences.
What Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” |
What Isaiah said in Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor. |
While comparing these two passage::
1. Jesus leaves out "bind up the brokenhearted"
2. Jesus breaks Isaiah's single thought "and release from darkness for the prisoners" and separate it to two separate actions "and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free"
3. And Jesus doesn't even finish Isaiah's statement and stops mid sentence. Jesus doesn't get to the part where Isaiah says, ."and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,...."
What's going on here? Was this all by accident? Did Jesus have a bad memory and was just paraphrasing what Isaiah said? I don't think so, because he had the scroll right in front of Him. My take on it is that Jesus purposely altered and left out a big portion of the Isaiah's passage, because Jesus knew that he was going to make the huge announcement that , "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
If Jesus read Isaiah's prophecy in it's entirety and then said, "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" Jesus would have been wrong and thus a liar. Since Jesus can neither be wrong nor be a liar, He had to tweak some parts of the passage and totally omit much of the rest. If Jesus didn't do this, he could have never made his coming out speech and announced his candidacy for President (King).
Because back then and today, there are still people who are brokenhearted; so Jesus had to for omit that part (for now). But it is good to know that the scriptures teach that there will come a time where this Servant will binds up all the broken hearts.
Also realize the phrase "Release from darkness" is present tense. Though the kingdom is expanding, we know at this current time many people are still living in darkness (topic at hand). Jesus tweaks this sentence and make it future tense by adding the word "to" (i.e. "to set the oppressed free.")
And this "vengeance" stuff was definitely not fulfilled during Jesus' first arrival. So Jesus, in order to be what he claimed to be (The Truth), He had to totally omit the rest of Isaiah prophecy (basically everything highlighted in blue above).
I have no doubt in my mind that Isaiah's passage will eventually be fulfilled in its entirety. It is my hope that you and your family are on the correct side when this day suddenly arrives. Realize that the phrase "the day of vengeance of our God" is lingo for "diplomacy time is over."
So on this subject of darkness, this is what Jesus said:
"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."
-John 12:46
I don't know how much easier God can make this. Most people think they need to do something great in order to receive such a wonderful gift. All that is required is that you believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
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