And Jesus Stopped…

Mike Leake

They’ve been waiting in the plane for awhile now. Some of them nervous as this is their first flight. Others strap themselves in as if this is routine. They’ve been to this dance several times.

It’s finally time.

The engine starts to rumble and the captain’s voice echoes through the plan. He announces to the anxious passengers that they are ready for take off in a couple. The plane picks up speed. The g-force has passengers pushed back in their seats. The 747 is just about ready to hit the air…

Then with a startle, the passengers are thrown forward. The 747 comes to a screeching halt.

You are slightly perturbed and have a bit of a sore neck, but you reckon that it must have been a malfunction or something of the sort. You trust the pilots judgment in stopping the plane and are grateful that they’ve likely made a decision which preserved your life. Then you ask a flight attendant why the plane came to an abrupt stop. She dutifully informs you that the Captain decided to stop because he noticed out of the corner of his eye a beggar who looked like he needed something.

The passengers are outraged. “Why would you risk giving us whiplash, stop the whole plane, delay our flight, and go through all of this, just for some smelly homeless guy?”

Now you might not have used quite those words but be honest. You’d have been a bit put out that the Captain has impacted your schedule so significantly just for a beggar. This is certainly what the disciples would have felt as Jesus stops along the road to Jerusalem and heals a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

Jesus is clearly on a mission. As Luke 9:51 says, “He set his face to go to Jerusalem”. This is the jet plane speeding down the runway to its destination. He grinds the whole thing to a halt because of this blind beggar. We could understand if he’d have stopped for an important person. If the President stopped the plane we might be slightly perturbed but we would understand, he’s pulled rank, it’s his prerogative. But not a beggar.

And yet the text is clear:

“And Jesus stopped…”

This should stop us in our tracks. Our redemption is in this verse. The same heart which caused the son of Man to stop for a blind beggar is the same heart which stoops to redeem you and I. A heart which stops is a heart which stoops.

We are Bartimaeus.

Desperate.

Destitute.

Hopeless.

And Jesus stopped…

Feast on that today.

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Photo source: here

Today in Blogworld 12.23.15

Mike Leake

7 Situations Where Your Church Should Not Have Greeters

It might be better to not have greeters than to have ones who aren’t doing it well.

5 Strategies for Daily Bible Reading

It’s that time of year again when folks will commit to daily Bible reading. Here are some helpful tips.

Why White Men Should Preach Noteless Sermons

Interesting. Not sure I buy it, but interesting.

Of the Reading of Many Books

I don’t believe I read as many books as I once did. And I don’t regret it one bit. I’d rather be a smarter reader who applies stuff instead of one who just gorges myself without giving much time to apply it.

The responses here are intriguing, see what happens when someone is told they are beautiful (A couple NSFW words in here):

When You are Sick of Saying It…

Mike Leake

“When you are sick of saying it, they are just now getting it.”

I’ve heard that maxim a few times and I’ve got to say I feel at a slight advantage in seeing it executed. Here is what I mean. I tend to preach through books of the Bible. I’ve been the pastor here at FBC Marionville since June. On day one I started a series in Mark. I’m in chapter 10 now. We’ve covered a variety of topics. Some themes repeat but I still don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to say something so many times that I’m getting sick of saying it.

Contrast this to the times whenever I’ve “preached what was on my heart”. That is code for, “I didn’t really get to prepare much and so I’m just going to preach what I’ve got”. I know what happens in these times—I preach on the topics I’m comfortable with and passionate about. These topics are my default mode. I’ll say them over and over and over again.

I’ve known preachers who give their congregation a steady diet of this type of preaching. If you sit under their preaching you are likely to hear about 5-10 things over and over and over again. But according to the above maxim the people will really get these 5-10 things. It will inevitably shape the culture.

But here I am slogging away preaching through books of the Bible trying to teach the whole counsel of God. I think it’ll take much longer to impact the culture. I could pick 5-10 things and say them over and over again and our people would get it much faster.

Yet, I remain confident that the best way to feed the sheep is to go about it book by book. I’m willing to do this because I believe there are some themes that will be shared over and over and over again as we go through the Scriptures. And I’m convinced that doing it this way will cause them to go deep. Ten years down the road I’m less concerned with people being able to name the 5-10 things I am really passionate about. I’d much rather ten years down the road our people be able to tell us what God is really passionate about. I want the stuff we say over and over again to be the stuff that God says over and over again.

I have to confess, though. I’m not sure I’ll get sick of the gospel or sharing the wonder and beauty of Jesus. I’m convinced, though, that if I go through each book of the Bible I’ll be speaking a whole lot of Gospel and whole lot of Jesus. God seems to be quite passionate about this message. And my aim is to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Hopefully I don’t ever get sick of saying that…

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Photo source: here