When I first got into Judaism I was surprised that, as guests invited over to a family’s house for dinner, the prayer occurred after the meal. I’ve asked several Jews about this and have gotten back several responses ranging from the comical to the over-analytical. For example, one Jew told me that you thank God for the food afterwords to factor the rare situation that it was poisoned … in which case you could thank God personally to His face. Some Jews start to recite laws and commandments, which is fine… but then why would God command us to pray after the meal instead of before?

I read on a blog that a Rabbi had been consulted in the matter and answered “It is easy to eat the meal and then forget God’s blessings on a full stomach, so the Jews ate first and then stopped to thank God for the blessing.” I like that. I like it a lot. I’d add to it, though, that many Jews pray before and after the meal. Before the meal, you’re forced to stop and reflect on the goodness God provides. It turns out to be good for digestion, too, since it forces the people at the table to calm down and relax. After the meal, you’re faced with remembering God after being satisfied and brings a nice, formal closure to the event.

Thinking about this also reminds me of the account of Jesus and the ten lepers mentioned in Luke 17:11-19. Ten men with a fatal disease plead with Jesus to help them. Instead of giving them money or sprinkling pixy dust, he orders them to go see the priests. That’s it. But they knew scripture well enough to know what that meant. In Levitical law it states that when someone has disease and goes to a priest, it’s for examination. These lepers knew that a medical examination would be pointless unless they were healed of leprosy. That faith drove them to the priests who announced them clean and clear of the disease.

Only one of the ten came back to Jesus and the LORD makes a point of it.

Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

We need to be that 10% who thanks God after providing for us. This is especially true since, as His people, we set the example.

Just as important, let’s strive to thank our neighbors and the strangers who do small things for us. How many times have people slowed down in a parking lot to let you cross in front of them, or swept the floor after a meal so you wouldn’t be stepping on sticky crumbs, or opened the door for you… anything big or small should be recognized, appreciated and thanked since they took the time and thoughtfulness to recognize and show appreciation towards you. We need to make our gratitude known, too. A hearty smile with a look in their eyes while you say the words mean much more than mumbling “thanks” while you look at the ground. Don’t forget the classic hand-written thank-you notes and cards. With all the junk mail we get in the post box, a kind letter rekindles a feeling of humanity and warmth.

Praying before a meal instills patience and praying after a meal instills gratitude; these provide critical lessons in life we have the opportunity to practice to perfection three times a day.

In baseball there’s a term called “sacrifice”. A batter deliberately hits the ball in a direction that will likely get caught, but far enough away from the other basemen that members of his team can advance to the next base. There’s also a religious term “sacrifice” which could involve killing an animal or human to pour that blood over something to appease a deity.

Since God forbids human sacrifice, and Jesus constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man (not Son of God), could it be that Jesus was giving us a message throughout his teachings that his death wasn’t for atonement or as a human sacrifice, but rather to advance people to God? Would I be at this point today, seeking out what God wants if it weren’t for someone hanging up for execution nearly 2000 years ago?

So what is spiritual success? For a teacher it’s leading people to God and enlightenment of the truth and a better life. For the individual it’s to live out the truth, to live a better life now and have an even better eternal life later.

How does anyone get spiritual success? John Macarthur Jr. said “Spiritual success requires commitment to others.” but the scriptures indicate it has to do with commitment towards God. People were committed towards the priests during Jesus’ day, but Jesus didn’t condone the acts of those people and even condemned the acts of the priests. Commitment towards the wrong person isn’t a path to success. So that brings me back to my search for God. The key to spiritual success is finding Him and being obedient to what He has to say. More often than not what I hear is theology and philosophy that people taught over the years directing towards self-inflicted suffering, which doesn’t equate to denying one sense to accentuate another. Fasting, for example, for the sake of suffering through it doesn’t get anyone anywhere but hungry. Fasting to deny that physical element of comfort that can impede on our search for the spiritual can make people more observant of the spiritual world around them.

I still have more searching to do… On a final note, is it possible to prosthelytize myself?

This apologetic is not about turning a hand up against Christ, but about the merits of incorporating the Jewish lifestyle with all its blessings and curses as a Christian. It’s a journey of a man towards the God that accepts and loves despite our grievous nature, but also about a God of Law and justice that lays out the rules in life and the consequences of disobedience.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:8-10

Most pastors stop before talking about why we were created. That’s where my journey begins: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Workmanship is the quality of integrity applying to the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture, people, or artisan. We could apply that definition directly here. Those whom God has called are to demonstrate love and righteousness to the the world as evidence of the fruit of the spirit that God provides. In short, we are defined as the goodness of the hand of God on the Earth. It’s important, though, to recognize the pretext because it humbles us and defines our relationship with God.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. – James 2:20-26

What happens to Ephesians 2 if faith is dead? This is not intended to open a debate between Calvinism and Armenianism, but invariably does so anyway. Instead I’m just going to point out three fundamentals presented in these two texts.

• It’s grace through faith that saves us.
  • Faith without works is dead.
• We are created for good works that God has already prepared for us to do.

What I see is an obvious statement. Those who have the faith for God’s grace to save, are also compelled to do good works. But “good” in the human psyche is relative. Fortunately, Christ recognized this when presenting a profound statement to a young (unmarried), wealthy merchant.

Now as Jesus was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. – Mark 10:17-22

Only God is good. That sets a very high standard. That means for us to do good, we must be as righteous as God. Although this is an impossible achievement from man alone, we have righteousness in faith provided it is demonstrated by our works.

This is how living faithfully is like a ritual. There are moments when after fall short of expectations we’re given the chance to try again (and God is a teacher who tests us). Each successive attempt only emphasizes the righteousness accounted to faith because we have faith that God continues to be our teacher. Righteousness is defined throughout all of God’s word, including the Laws of Moses (2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Deuteronomy 6:25). As we act righteously, denying ourselves for our Creator, we further establish that faith.

It was her first day in the maternity ward and knew only what she was trained for. Contractions were two minutes apart, lasting more than a minute each, and the patient was well over eight centimeters dilated. Ironically, I had read how to deliver a baby in a taxicab in the strange book “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook” just the night before, never imagining I would actually use that knowledge.

A new nurse rushed in and looked at me. “Are you ready?” she asked. “What?” I questioned what she was asking me to do. “Go get some towels, you’re going to deliver a baby!” As I rushed for a towel, another nurse draped one over my arms. I ran back and gave encouragement to the lady who was already in stirrup position. “You’re doing great!” Honestly, I had no idea how she was doing. A nurse told her to push and just as suddenly I was holding up the head of a newborn. The baby was still half way in her mother until after another push when she suddenly slipped out.

The tiny baby was so slick and slippery I was afraid she would drop out of my hands and onto the hard floor. That’s when the coarse towel suddenly made sense. The doctor came in slamming open the door, still clothed in slacks – had he really been golfing!?

I can’t attest for other cultures, but very few American men will ever have the blessing of delivering their own child. That experience continues to teach, and it’s in that lesson I begin this apologetic. Being born doesn’t happen instantaneously. It takes about twenty minutes to fully deliver a baby. In that event there’s a time when the baby is half in and half out no matter how quickly the delivery takes place. Being born again has similar properties.

Abraham’s rebirth began through faith in God and obedience to Him, but his name wasn’t acquired for 25 years. Through that journey Abram continued to change into a more faithful man. It was this faithfulness that was counted as righteousness, not any acts, but the actions that Abram performed reflected his faith. Moses was 40 when he left Egypt and it wasn’t for another 40 years until God revealed Himself to Moses. Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days. Saul was blinded for for three days. Even Christ was in the grave three days. From the chrysalis of a caterpillar to a butterfly to the metamorphosis of a tadpole to a frog, these periods of changing from one world into the next are reflected in nature as well. The point is that spiritual rebirth isn’t necessarily a sudden event that one can point a date and time to.

In my case, varying events in life – the drama of death to the elation of new birth, the insight of good friends’ late night conversations and the path in my career – each step draws from me a spiritual response just as much as it requires a mental or emotional one. Only die-hard atheists argue that man isn’t a spiritual being. As such there must be a spiritual realm we walk in parallel to our physical one.

The lowdown is that everything happens for a reason. If we choose not to risk ourselves for righteousness in whatever circumstance we’re placed into then the end result will still happen, but to our own demise. Our choices both define who we are and are ascertained from our predefined disposition.

The holiday also has several theologically formulated side plots: Good versus Evil, What goes around comes around – specifically that those who live by the sword die by the sword, There is such a thing as universal beauty, Humble obedience to God is often mistaken for human arrogance – but only to those already saturated with arrogance, and Laws can’t be broken but may be trumped by higher laws.

There are so many nuggets of wisdom that come from this holiday that it’s ironic to consider it a fool’s holiday. Shrouded in costumes, groggers, silly pranks, cookies, candy, plays, goofy songs and lots of wine, this holiday is really a beautiful message in masquerade.

People have been boiling over the lies in the main stream media for decades, but have remained quiet. So why the sudden change, now? Perhaps it is because people were promised change, foolishly believed it, ignorantly voted for it, and received a series of events that included politicians gleefully raising tax burdens of the common man to pay for the millionaire bailouts instead … and you can’t tell this same public that our highly intelligent president knew nothing about how the money would be spent. Perhaps it’s because, acting like a good American, we do what we’re told day after day to wake up one day realizing we’re a slave to a national debt that had been building up and hidden – swept away – while the media continued to feed out lies about how great the economy was because we were doing what Americans do (whatever that means).

So it turns out that people are waking up and realizing that main stream media is a lap-dog to the feds, a fat-cat to their advertisers and a circus monkey to the government that sits between the two. The real stories are often ignored from the press while a distracting story is burnished and reprinted with the same degree of accuracy, conjecture and falsehood as a high-school crack dealer trying to convince a jury of his innocence. It makes for a great show, but it makes you sick when you step back and realize how much time and money is wasted over the endeavor.

It’s refreshing to see a generation that was called crazy conspiracy theorists finally get proper exposure – baptist preachers being beaten by executive officers for standing up for his constitutional rights, bloggers being imprisoned for videotaping a police state gone wild, celebrities being called crazy and mocked for telling people that their fears from the pharmaceutical megaliths don’t make them crazy despite what the government and main stream media says publicly.

As taught in grade school political science, any institution given all three of the legislative, executive and judicial power becomes a disease to the world. Even the Bible forbade anyone other than God Himself of being all three, though it was often called by the seats that enacted these powers: priest, king and prophet. I mention this because one country after another has turned into this monsterous disease – it’s a political pandemic. The very media that was supposed to expose these problems failed the public and went so far left that any of their “repentant” attitudes in moving to the right are laughible at best and effigy worthy at least (and how many of us haven’t burned a paper at least once in our life – the only type of “book” burning that is not only common but humanitarian).

Rogue online papers, bloggers and videos are means of information, but every road of information quickly becomes saturated with misinformation so that only those who saw the events unfold personally can determine the truth. These people are fervently preaching, tirelessly running, actively working or jaded and drinking.

Excuse me while I look for the nearest bar…

He showed strong evidence that we are so self-absorbed that we naturally believe that random events in this world are in response to our involvement – no matter how detached.

I had to think about this and the book of Job came to mind. Here is a righteous man being tortured by Satan and his friends are picking on him, accusing him of doing wrong things that he never even thought of doing.

So I think there are Biblical applications here. In religion, we try to build a relationship between man-kind and the unexplainable. In a relationship with God, we often find that the best miracles happen when we do nothing other than sit and wait. So again, religion does not equate to relationship. Nevertheless, I want to suggest that there is an overall result of our behavior. If we do evil, God allows evil to fall on us with more severity and recourse to ultimate destruction. If we do righteous, then our prayers have merit and God will offer some graces and blessings where there would otherwise be none. But it appears to stop there.

Like my children, if they behave then after a while if they ask something special from me I’m more willing to give it to them – but they’re still getting fed, clothed, sheltered and educated regardless. If they continually misbehave and rebel, then I step back and watch them fall. Sometimes I lecture them afterwords and sometimes I don’t. Again, they’re still going to be provided for regardless.

There’s a proverb that it rains on everyone – the righteous and the wicked alike. From that proverb I agree with Derren Brown. Most of life occurs and it’s what we choose to do with that occurrence that demonstrates who we are, but our ability in tomorrow’s ball game is not dependent on our unwashed lucky socks.

So I’ve been rethinking some of the traditions and rituals I go through in life. Is it because I believe something will happen from it or because I think it’s the right thing to do? That puts a new perspective spin on life.

I recall reading some humorous notes from school teachers where a class had been required to write out the pledge of allegiance (to the flag…).

From that, and through some of the college classes regarding music instruction to grade-schoolers, I understood that children don’t necessarily know what’s going on with the song so you have to ask some basic questions.

So we were singing “Peter and John” also known as “Silver and Gold Have I None”:

Peter and John went to pray
They met a lame man on the way
He asked for alms and held out his palms
and this is what Peter did say:

“Silver and gold have I none,
But such as I have give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazereth rise up and walk.”

He went walking and leaping and praising God,
Walking and leaping and praising God,

“In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazereth rise up and walk.”

Noticing the look of blank seven-year old faces in the crowd I stopped and asked some questions. I could understand the younger kids not understanding the content, but by seven I expect them to understand the gist of the song.

Me: “Does anyone know what lame means?”
only one boy held up his hand – he was about 7 or 8.
Boy: “Boring!”

(Insert snickering from the present teachers)

I know he only understood “lame” in today’s slang context … as in “That movie was lame.” But there is a hidden allegation that children’s worship is also “lame.”

One of the frustrations felt as a worship leader is that the children expected to be entertained. Their short attention span could only be held by a laser-light smoke-machine strobe-light pounding hard-core show … or at least some puppets.

Our overabundance of TV watching and video games are designed to under-sensitize children. If you laden their little brains with flashy videos and fast music then you can grab their attention more than your competitors… which means your sponsors are happy.

Those children from homes without much TV – or any TV tend to be more responsive to their environments and definitely hold longer attention spans … and who knows … they might even know, by looking at the social behavior of their peers, the real meaning of “lame.”

Several days ago my youngest daughter, three, started learning about Jesus’ crucifixion. We’ve spoken to her about it before, but this was the first time she actually understood it to some extent.

M to Mommy in an excited voice: “Is it true? Is Jesus Really Coming Back?”
Mommy: “Yes. He’s coming back someday.”
M: “Yay!” (Spins around in circles as fast as she can.)

A few days later my wife took the children to a thrift store where the little girl saw a cross…

M to Mommy: “Look, Mom. A cross.”
Mommy: “Do you know what happened there?”
M: “Jesus died.”
Mommy: “Yes. Do you know why He died?”
M: “Because He had nothing better to do!”

Children can be so funny at times. Neither my wife nor I could figure out where that response came from. On “Jeapordy” she would have lost hundreds of dollars on that response. Looking deeper at the meaning, though … she’s right!

Matthew 26:50-54 brings this to light in Jesus’ own words when Peter sliced off the ear of the high priest’s servant at the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus warns Peter about what violence brings then says something we hadn’t heard before: “…do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”

Jesus knew He had a way out of being crucified. It wasn’t steel and strong wooden beams that held Him to the cross. At any moment He could have cried out to God and Jesus could have ruled in might and power – but then He wouldn’t have fulfilled His word.

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Jesus had nothing better to do than to save the world from sin and death … than to bail us out of the eternal prison we walked into when Adam sinned at the beginning.

He had nothing better to do than to die on the cross.