Queen Esther & Human Trafficking

At the church where I serve as Youth and families pastor we have a contemporary service each Sunday at 9am. My wife and I lead worship almost every Sunday and once in a while I get the opportunity to speak. We are using “The Story Series” as our base for that service which is designed to walk us through the entire Bible in 31 weeks. This week was about the book of Esther, a woman of beauty and courage. I wanted to share my notes from yesterday’s message because I think this story needs to be shared over and over again.

Esther one of the few women in the Bible that gets her own book. Esther holds a very important place in Israelis history, a history that could have ended if it were not for this brave girl. But the story isn’t an easy one, there are some pretty messy things that happen in the story of Esther. Like many old testament stories we might be tempted to think simply of the kid version of the story where the king hand picks Esther the most beautiful woman in all the land, she saves her people from an evil man named Hamen and they live happily ever after.

If the story of Esther was not in the bible I’m sure it would be a Disney princess movie. From rags to riches, from being a foreigner to being the queen of all the land. But it might not meet the PG standards.

But lets look at the story, deep into the story and find what God’s plan in all this was.

Our story begins today with another woman on the throne, well not exactly on the throne because the king, king Xerxes was on the throne but his wife Vashti was queen.

King Xerxes loved to be extravagant and to party, who wouldn’t be when you are the ruler of 127 providences. To show off his wealth and extravagance Xerxes had a 180 day fair, like a worlds fair of sorts to display his kingdom to his VIP guests and to top it off he gave a grand banquet to all his guests that lasted 7 days. At this banquet was an open bar and all the wine anyone wished to drink.

So in other words it was a drunken mess, like a tailgate party that has gone on for way to long.

At the climax of drunken party Xerxes has this bright idea of inviting his wife to come parading her beauty before him and his All male guests.

But Vashti would not have any part of it. She would not come to the king’s request and entertain the watching lustful eyes of the drunken men. She would not do it. She would not disgrace herself.

That choice that Vashti made was a courageous one. To refuse the king could equal death. But she would not allow her self to simply be an item, a possession for the king to do with as he pleased.

She stood strong and because of her stand she was banished.

So with Vashti banished the King was in need of a new queen, and this for Xerxes was not something to be taken lightly. He sent men through out his 127 providences to bring to him young girls that might be suitable to be queen.

These girls had no choice in the matter they would be taken from their homes and brought to the palace to be placed under the care of a eunuch. They would be given spa treatments for months.

When I read this in Esther this past week it struck me that these girls in away were trafficked away from their families, their homes and forced and trained in the ways of pleasing the king.

In the past few years I have been made aware and learned a lot about human trafficking. Human trafficking, is modern day slavery. Repackaged and reformed to be as much out of the publics eye as possible, people are entrapped, enslaved, forced to do unspeakable things with little to no freedom or hope.

In third world countries the poor become indebted to the rich and can never repay, families are forced to sell their children as workers in factories or sending them to other countries because they are promised a new life and wealth but when they arrive they are tricked and coerced into sex slavery, prostitution and drug smuggling. They are stripped of their human rights, dignity and told they mean nothing to anyone.

This is a sad truth. Slavery didn’t end in 1865, it might have slowed down when the Civil War ended but it didn’t stop. And it’s not just in other countries across the sea it’s happening here in our own back yard. When I lived in Kansas I learned that Dodge City, which was 45 min away from my school, was a hot bed for Human trafficking, the stock yards were a prime spot for prostitution and drugs. The highway to dodge went right by my college… those people passed right by us and we didn’t even see them.

Even here in North Carolina human trafficking happens, my wife and I attended an event last Saturday to raise awareness for human trafficking and a girl at the event shared a little of her story, she grew up right here in Greensboro, NC, she wound up a victim of trafficking.

Human trafficking is as real and it happens, it even happened here in the story of Esther.

Esther was taken by Xerxes men to the palace to be beautifully prepared to meet the king. Their one job now was to please the king…

When I read this story I find this to be the lowest point in Esther’s life. She had been through a lot, from the lose of both her parents, to be raised by her uncle, to now being take from the only family she has and forced to compete to be queen.

Before Esther was taken her uncle Mordecai advised her to tell no one that she was a jew.

In a fairy tale sorta way Esther is chosen by the king to be his next wife, we don’t know really if Esther really wanted to be queen, but we do know she didn’t have a choice. The king thought she was beautiful so she became is queen.

Fortunately for her, her uncle Mordecai lived in the same city and so she didn’t lose all connection with him. In the story Mordecai find out about a plot to kill the king and saves the king. In response to Mordecai’s saving his life the king has his second in command Haman honor Mordecai. Haman happens however to hate Mordecai and so plots to kill Mordecai but thats not enough Haman wants to kill all the jews so he tricks the king into making a decree to have all the jews killed on a certain day.

But the king nor Haman knows that the new Queen is a jew.

In Esther 4 Mordecai makes Esther aware of whats going to happen to the jews and pleads with her to help them.

Esther 4

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

I love Mordecai’s reply to Esther, “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

For such a time as this. In the book of Esther God is not mentioned once but the evidence of God’s plan is blatantly present. Here in these first moments of Esther’s queenship she is faced with a great challenge, Haman has doomed all jews, but Mordecai sees something different, he sees hope, he sees the position that Esther is in was meant to help save the jews.

Esther new that there was a chance the king would not want to see her, that he could just as easily banish her as he had Vashti but she was willing to take the risk, she was willing to have courage and stand for her people who couldn’t stand for themselves.
we know from the rest of the story that the king does grant her life and he attends her little banquet twice, we learn that Esther has the courage and guts to tell the king what is troubling her and how Haman has set out to bring an end to her people. She has the courage to speak for those who could not.

Sadly the king couldn’t reverse the decree but he does allow the jews to defend themselves and on the day set out to be the destruction of the jews turns into a victory against their enemies.

What do we take away from this story?

How does this story of Esther effect our lives today?
When I read this story I see a young girl who stands up with courage and turns the worst possible thing into the best possible thing. Who doesn’t lose heart even though she went through one of the worst possibly life experiences ever, I see a girl that stands up and fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, literally.

So us?

What are we going to do?

I told you earlier about Human trafficking. I’ve told you about people that cannot speak for themselves, that are not free, that each day are fighting for their lives. But does that break your heart, because it does mine, it hurts to hear about children how are forced to work, kidnaped, sold and mistreated.

We have a choice, just like Esther had a choice, you are placed her in this time and in this place just for this. To stand up for others, to fight for freedom, it’s going to take courage, it may cost us much, maybe everything but is human life not worth that, is not each human being in need of love, worth giving love to simply because they are created by God.

My Heart breaks for humanity, for the broken and the captive.

If we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus we have to carry on what he started… at the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry he read from Isaiah and it’s our challenge today.

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.”

If we don’t know what to do find someone who does? If anything we need to speak for those who can’t.

So Thankful…

So, I know it’s not common to start a new paragraph with the word “SO”, however, I thought that it should be done so thats what I did. So, as I went for a walk this morning with my wife I thought that today would be a great day to make a blog post, a post very much overdue. So, here I am writing this post not out of regret for not writing in a long time, but rather, writing out of a thankful heart. That’s what I want to focus on today, the things that I am thankful for. I could just make a list of the things, but that lacks meaning and I can imagine myself getting bored reading someone else’s list of the things they are thankful for… So to infuse more meaning into this post I want to explain why I am thankful for these things.

1. My Wife, Megan. I’m so thankful for her. Her personality is an artful conception, there is such meaning and beauty in her just being herself. The other day she told me she sees and hears things in colors and shapes. It’s as if she sees the world in a painted form that she sometimes gives me a little glimpse into. She is funny and doesn’t hesitate to remind me so. She is crafty and artistic. She is beautiful and thoughtful. We have been married a few months over a year now and it’s been just a small sample of what forever together is going to be like. I’m thankful I get to spend forever with her.

2. Family, I don’t live near my family right now and, well, somedays that sucks. But really I am thankful everyday for them. For the memories we made growing up and our relationships. Having four sisters was interesting to say the least but I wouldn’t trade any of them for a brother. Love was aways in the house and the house was always packed… Not literally, but my family – even though they can drive me nuts – always has shown me love, even when I move far away and I’m not around much. I’m thankful that family is family no matter how far away.

3. Laughter, I really enjoy laughing. I think this probably comes from growing up in a full house and always having something or someone to laugh at, or with. Laughter is an overflow of Joy. If life doesn’t seem to to have any joy just find something that’s funny! Laugh a little. There was one week this year that I laughed harder than I had in a long time, I was laughing so hard I cried. It feels so good to laugh. Also, I will never look at scrambled eggs again without laughing… But that’s a different story for another day… ,Abe.

4. Experiences. So thats kind of a broad thing to be thankful for, but thats what I am thankful for. Experiences. This summer, Megan and I got to go out to Oregon to a friends wedding. It was my first time ever going to Oregon and it was amazing looking out and seeing the mountains rise out of the desert-like land of central Oregon. We stayed in a house with the other members of the wedding party and had a blast getting to know new people. It’s always a blessing getting to celebrate a new chapter in our friends lives. Megan and I also got to travel to Haiti this fall and be a part of a medical missions team there. It was an eye-opening experience and hard to put into words. There was so much we learned and saw on that trip. I am thankful that God has given us opportunities to serve everywhere we go.

5. Challenges, I’m thankful for all the challenges that have come with being a youth pastor, with learning to be a husband, with living in a state that is not my home, and navigating the adventure of life. These challenges haven’t always been fun or easy, but they are shaping me and the more I stop and think about life, the more I am thankful for them.

6. Interruptions. Let me explain. Yesterday, my friend Thomas came and spoke at our contemporary service and one point he made was about how God wants to interrupt our routine, our cycle of how we do our lives. Thomas explained how Jesus was a beautiful interruption. Jesus wasn’t the Messiah that the Jewish leaders were expecting. He wasn’t a normal Rabbi either. He was an interruption, God’s divine interruption. I’m thankful for Jesus interrupting my life. For knocking me out of my routine.

My hope this Thanksgiving is that we can let Jesus be that beautiful interruption in our routine. That in the midst of the turkey, too much food and football we might stop and really be thankful. Not just a passing quick ‘thanks’ either. A real genuine, “SO, let me tell you why I am thankful.”

Where is Our Joy?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… but honestly, it doesn’t feel like it. The air is turning cold, the presents are under the tree, the refrigerator is full of Christmas cookies, the parties are planned but my heart is heavy. Usually around Christmas, spirits are high and I feel like a snow flake falling joyfully from the sky. But right now I am not sure where my joy is?

 I know it’s there some where deep inside my heart. I know happiness is fleeting but joy lasts forever. So is that joy just misplaced or hidden deep in the worries of my heart. As I was reading the Christmas story this morning trying to find joy in the beginning of it all, I realized a lot of times we do misplace our Christmas joy in things that really have nothing to do with Christmas at all. We have the tree, the cookies, the presents and the Children’s Christmas program, but thats not Christmas. In Matthew chapter 1 verses 22-23 it reads “All this took place to fufill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with Child and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel”, which means, “God with us.”

God with us. Immanuel, Immanuel, Immanuel. That is it, that is where my Joy is hidden. It’s been with God the whole time for He is my joy. When Jesus came into the world many of the jews had given up hope. They were in a place where God seemed distant and they thought they could not have joy under the Roman rule. Recently, I have had my moments where I felt just like those jews, God has felt distant and I’ve honestly been disconnected. Living here in the South a lot of times I feel like an alien, an outcast, or completely unwelcome, at times even in the church I serve at. Like those jews living under Roman rule they had freedom, they had rights, jobs, and some place in society, but they were not Roman citizens, they had no voice and had to do what was expected of them without question.

It’s no wonder by the time that Jesus showed up that many of the jews were simply looking for someone to over throw the Romans. They were tired, weary and had very little to be joyful about. I think thats why many of them missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. They missed that he was God with us. They thought their joy as a nation and a people would be restored when the Roman’s were gone, but Jesus was not here for that. He came to bring Joy to the world, to set the captives free, to bind up the broken hearted and to simply be God with us in the fullest of senses.

I think one of the things that has been stealing my joy is our Children’s Christmas program. Last year was my first year ever writing the Christmas program and it went really well. But this year, my heart has not been in it. When I read the script it lacks joy. There are these expectations that every year the children have to preform a Christmas program, and there is this feeling each year that this really isn’t for the kids at all, it’s for the parents and grandparents which is okay, however, at the same time it is one of the saddest things I have ever experienced.

Where is our joy? In a silly Christmas program (I can call it that cause I wrote it). Is it in our children half singing a song or two, in knowing that we are carrying on some tradition thats losing its meaning. I honestly want to scrap the whole play even though it’s happening this sunday and simply read the Christmas Story to the children, reminding them that God is with us. That Joy doesn’t come from presents, or trees, or cookies or santa. Our joy should be found in knowing God is with us. We should wake up each morning reminded that God is with us, that he is not distant, that we are not alone, that no matter what the world says or no matter how much someone doesn’t really like you, God loves you.

I think we have lost where our hope and joy should be. We have misplaced it…But we have to wake up, we can’t give up hope, we have to dig deep, look upon the face of God and ask him to restore our joy. A joy in him, a joy that flows over from a heart that knows love, a joy that understands God is with us, a joy that sings loud for all to hear because everyone should know and experience this joy.

May any who read this have a Merry Christmas full of God’s Joy!

God is with us

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Memory, Mind and Moving Forward

 

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things”- Colossians 3:2

 

Memory: (noun) “the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms”

 

Over the past few years I have acquired a growing fascination with the human brain. The thought that we think sometimes blows my mind. There is such complexity and mystery to the brain that anytime that I spend any amount of time at all contemplating it, I am blown away and in awe of how it all works, of course this leads me back to the very creator and engineer of this complexity.

As a group of friends and I were sitting in a house in Mebane, NC last night discussing some of the things that we were going through someone made the comment that “the fact that we can remember, or have the capacity for memory is an awesome blessing that God has given us.” In the context of our conversation we were discussing experiencing God and how often times, that is what our heart desires but we get discouraged because we go through times where we don’t feel him. And that is where memory comes in, in those times where we can’t seem to feel him, God has given us the memory of when we did.

Just yesterday I was looking back through some of my earlier blog posts and I found one that I wrote while still in college out in Kansas. In that blog I quoted Donnie Hinshaw who was the pastor of the church that I attended out there,

 

“To hope in something means the state of life you are in is a state of discontent”

 

In that sermon I remember him talking about living with a Holy Discontent. A discontent that says where I am is not where I always want to be, a “holy” discontent is when that discontent is focused on experiencing God and being in a relationship with him. Right now I would have to say I have a pretty holy discontent. Not because where I am at is a horrible place but for the fact that I want to know, experience and feel God more, then what I do right now. I can remember those time where God really moved in my life. Those times where what I was doing and how I was living was intentionally geared toward pursuing a relationship with him. Those moments moved me forward, allowed me to take risk and strengthened my trust in God.

I think sometimes we get these ideas that the life of a christian should be full of these mountain top experiences and everyday is going to be full of miracles. However, that is not how it works, granted we may have those mountain top moments where God blows our minds, but in reality God wants to be with us in every moment. God takes the mundane and fills it with meaning. Just look at the life of Jesus, the majority of his life was spent living with twelve men. He traveled around taking the daily things of life and teaching them with those things. He did miracles but there were days where he didn’t. He blew the disciples minds but there where times where they were confused because he wasn’t the Messiah that everyone was expecting. Jesus spent three years helping the disciples experience him and fill their minds with memories of his life with them, so that when he was gone they could share those memories with the rest of the world.

One of the things that really stands out to me about the early church is that they were in each others homes, they were building community, they were eating together so that they could share together in the memory of Jesus. At the last supper Jesus said “Remember me when you take this cup and eat this bread.” He didn’t just say this because he was going to the cross the next day he said this so that this moment would be written in the minds of his disciples, that they would remember all the moments they had with him and that memory would move them forward.

Moving forward. What I mean by this is that our minds have the capacity for an endless amount of memories. Jesus doesn’t just tell them to remember, but rather to go and make new memories, to go and make disciples. To go and live life with people just like he had lived life with them. The disciples could have just settled into the mundane. They could have just kept the memories to themselves and let those three years be the only memories they had with Christ. The apostle Peter even tried this by going back to being a fisherman after Jesus died, but Jesus showed up and reminded Peter of what he had taught him and asked him to do (John 21:15-25).

So what does this have to do with us. I think sometimes we settle for simply living off the memories of old rather then making new ones. In the context of the church I think this is why so many churches around america are on the verge of dying. They have stopped living, they have settled for the mundane, they say this is what we use to do and this is what we will always do and we can’t change. Those churches like to talk about the glory days, they like to talk about when all the pews were full and about all the things they use to do. They speak of these experiences like war stories, there is this feeling of it being a long, long time ago in totally different situation. What breaks my heart about this is that it leaves a feeling that there is no future, there is no hope, and any discontent there may be is a discontent for what once was rather then what could be.

We as human’s have this ability to get overwhelmed with what the world around us is doing. We focus so much on the crazy messed up world that we forget God, we forget we have experienced him, we forget he loved us, we forget he saved us, we forget how to be in relationship with him, we forget that church isn’t about the program, numbers or methods but about the people being in relationship with God and each other. We forget that we have the opportunity to experience him everyday. We forget we have hope. I believe churches will close their doors and they will figuratively dye because they refuse to move forward. A whole generation may wonder in the desert like the Israelites because they have a great fear of moving forward, a fear that experiencing God in a new way may challenge everything they know, a fear that everything might change, a fear that the new memory may be painful, hard and risky.

The memory of Jesus will moved forward not by the organized established church but by the people that are willing to say “the memories I have with God are not enough, I want more”. The people that are willing to move forward, pick up the cross and move toward Christ with the holy discontent, that where they are isn’t where God wants them to stay. I can say that is is a challenge for myself as well, I realized recently that I had been riding off of my memories of past experiences with Jesus and others rather then making new ones. I realized that I had settled with just being content with who I was and what I was doing, but when my wife pointed out something to me the other day that I need to change it challenged me to really look deep into my own heart and ask myself what I’m doing.

As I have thought about this I have tried to put this into a context of where I am at in life right now. Just this year I got married to a beautiful young woman that I love very much, it took a lot of risk on both of our parts to trust that this what we wanted for our lives. It forced us to change, it daily challenges us in the way that we live and how we see the world. I can’t live the same way I was living before I had a wife, I had been living alone, eating frozen pizzas and hamburgers, watching what I wanted to watch and doing whatever I wanted to do. Having a wife has made me realize how selfish that way of life is and providing for her and myself isn’t ever going to be easy but it’s totally worth it.

Another thing that I have realized recently is I can’t continue the relationship simply off of old memories. Where we are living is a whole new place from where we started dating, in almost every way. To strengthen our marriage we have to be intentional about creating new memories and doing the same things that we were doing while dating doesn’t always mean that much. We have to do new things, take new risks and say “what I know about you isn’t enough, I want to know you more.” Sometimes that is scary because that means we have to open up, be honest and move forward.

I have a holy discontent for life because I want to make new memories with God and those around me that I love. It starts with setting my mind on Christ. Setting my mind intentionally on pursuing a relationship and being willing to move forward. Right before the Colossians 3:2 passage Paul reminds the church at Colosse that they had been raised with Christ and Christ was seated at the right hand of God. In this he is reminding them that Jesus had already concurred death, he had already forgiven them, he had already saved them, and that setting their minds on things above was to set their minds on Jesus.

Going on from there Paul says in verse 3-4, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory”…

 

And in Verse 5… “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature”…

 

Then he lists all these things that aren’t what we need as followers of Christ for we wont find him in those things and in contrast he writes in Verse 12-17… “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

 

Paul reminds the church that Jesus is their life and then he reminds them of what that looks like to live as if Christ really was their life. He encouraged them to continue in the future to live this way, to continue to experience what it means to be God’s chosen people. The memories we have with God should move us forward toward more. We have to ask the question is Jesus just a memory or a story I read about or is he alive, seated on the throne and is he my life?

 

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the Life.

 

I am discontent with anything short of Jesus being my life.

 

-Caleb Hunter

Who Do You Say I Am?

Our understanding of who God is and who we are drastically affects our understanding of who Christ is and why we need him”– David Platt (Radical pg 34)

Over the course of the past year as a youth pastor I have been trying to help my students get a better understand of Jesus by leading them through the life of Jesus. I think sometimes we focus so much on “the manger” and “the cross” that we miss out on how Jesus really lived his life. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus birth and death are important but we have to see the story as a whole to really grasp how significant both of those events are. I think many times as Christians we treat Jesus death and resurrection as really the only important things that happened, it’s like we open a novel and read only the part about the hero dying. That is important, but thats not everything.

I believe that the more that we read and study the life of Jesus, the day in and day out doings of Jesus, we will start to experience him in really and intimate way. It’s like when you read a well written novel you get emotional attached to the characters and you start to feel the pains, joys, struggles and change that they go through. You choose to be invested in the story, you choose to let yourself be swept away in what is going on.

Last year I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I didn’t necessarily want to read it. The idea of kids killing each other honestly still makes me feel sick to my stomach, but my little sister convenience me to read it. As I started reading I went from having no interest to feeling emotionally invested in the story. Collins evoked emotions through the book that I didn’t want to feel. I found myself crying and cheering at times. I could have just avoided all this if I had just put off reading it. It’s easier to not read it then put myself through that, however, thinking about it now that is the same reason sometimes we put off reading the Bible. We put off reading the story of God’s relationship with humanity because we might be affected. We might change and feel things we didn’t want to, BUT isn’t that the point.

The Bible is the story of God’s relationship with humanity, a story that is full of conflict, struggle, and pain but it is also a story full of grace, love and redemption. Jesus life is part of that story, arguably the most vital part, so what is holding us back from opening the book and being invested in the story. I think maybe what holds us back is how we view Jesus. Let me explain by looking at Mark 8:11-30.

In the first eleven verses of Mark 8 Jesus fed four-thousand people with seven loaves of bread, there are a couple of things we can learn from that but the important one is that Jesus had compassion on the people. His motive for feeding the four-thousand was not to do a miracle or show off, it was simply to feed the hungry because he knew what it meant to be hungry. If we pick up the story in verse eleven it reads:

“11 Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.” Mark 8:11-13 (NIV)

Why would they come ask for a sign? It amazes me that the Pharisees would come to Jesus at this point in his life and ask for a sign, some miracle so that they might believe. When I read this I think Jesus was frustrated with them (He sighed deeply). He had just fed four-thousand people, before that he had healed a deaf and mute man, even before that he had fed five-thousand people with five loaves and two fish, he had walked on water, he had cast out evil spirits. Weren’t these things a sign enough for the pharisees. Of all people they should know right? The pharisees prided themselves in their study of the law and of Moses. They would have read the prophecies about the Messiah but they had their own ideas. Reading on…

“14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” 16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. 20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” 21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”” -Mark 8:14-21 (NIV)

In this passage we find Jesus with his disciples, they have very little bread which makes me think the disciples were worrying about how they were going to get more and in that moment Jesus warned them. I use to read this and not really care to understand what Jesus meant by this but now it’s starting to make sense after reading N.T. Wrights commentary about this passage. Wright writes “Now Jesus speaks of ‘leaven’, not to warn the disciples about the wrong sort of bread, but to put them on their guard against the wrong sort of kingdom-vision (Mark for Everyone, pg 104).” As I thought of that I realize why Jesus used the word yeast to describe this to the disciples. See yeast is very small but very powerful, when it’s mixed in with flour and water it’s nearly impossible to get it out and it affects the whole loaf.

Jesus warns the disciples of the yeast of the pharisees and Herod. The reason for this is because the pharisees were looking for a Messiah that would come restore Israel politically and spiritually. To them this meant that the Messiah would come and overthrow the Roman’s and take the throne of David here on earth. Secondly, they thought the Messiah would restore the temple to it’s original glory like in the days of Solomon. The temple was central to their spirituality because it was the place God dwelled. That was their focus and it affected everything they thought and did. Thats why when Jesus came they weren’t convinced he was the Messiah because he wasn’t doing what they thought he was suppose to do.

Herod was concerned about his throne. He was a puppet king for the Romans and anyone he thought was a threat to Roman was a threat to him and his “kingdom”. Herod had already put John the baptist to death for speaking against him and I am sure that the stories of Jesus had made it to his ears. Herod wasn’t interested in knowing if Jesus was the Messiah, he was simply concerned about himself and making sure Jesus wasn’t a threat to him. I am sure the crowds that followed Jesus worried Herod, but he didn’t really want to know Jesus.

Jesus warns the disciples and then reminds them that they don’t have to worry about having enough bread. Jesus is almost sarcastically saying “Remember when… I fed five-thousand and four-thousand people with very little.” Right after this Jesus encounters a crowd that brings Jesus a blind man to be healed.

“22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into[a] the village.”

-Mark 8:22-26 (NIV)

This experience that Jesus has with the blind man has a few things that could be missed if we just read it as another healing. First, a crowd gathers bringing Jesus someone to heal, like many of the crowds before they might have had different motives, but Jesus actions speaks of his heart for people. Jesus didn’t just heal him right there in front of the crowd. He wasn’t about putting on a show or simply doing miracles because he could. Jesus took the man away, outside the village, away from the crowd. He didn’t say any magical words or forgive the guys sins, he simply took a little spit and rubbed the man’s eye. Then like an eye doctor would he asked him what he could see, finding that he didn’t have 20/20 vision Jesus touched him again giving him permanent contacts. He then just sends the man away.

The second thing I see in this is the kingdom-vision of the crowd and possibly the blind man. The crowd had come to see a show. They weren’t all concerned that Jesus might be the Messiah, they thought he was the greatest show on earth long before the Barnum and Bailey Circus. They wanted to see miracles. We see that also with the crowd of the four-thousand who followed Jesus for three days. After reading the stories of Jesus healing I always wonder what happened to the people he healed. How were their lives changed and what did they do after that experience. We don’t really know, some may have followed Jesus and others may not. For this reason I think for those that were healed they really might not have cared if Jesus was the Messiah. They might have seen Jesus as the healer, the best thing that ever happened to them, or the only doctor who really knew what he was doing.

Finally we come to Mark 8:27-30…

“27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him” (NIV)

Here all those other things make sense, as if Mark is building everything to this climax, a question that Jesus asks “Who do you say I am?”. We just looked at the pharisees and how they thought Jesus might have just been a prophet or really good teacher or just a radical guy, because he didn’t fit their view of the Messiah and their Kingdom-vision. Then we looked at Herod and how he thought Jesus might just be another John the baptist, a crazy man who could draw a crowd, which was okay as long as he wasn’t a threat. Then the crowds and the blind man, who might have saw Jesus simply as Elijah come back from the dead because he could heal and do miracles.

But, who do you say I am? is Jesus question, not to them but to his disciples. Peter makes a really bold statement with his response “You are the Messiah”(vs.29). This was a bold statement because not even the pharisees who knew the law and the prophecies would say this. Herod wouldn’t believe it because Jesus would then be a threat. The crowd was to caught up in the show to care. However, Peter knew, he knew because he had been with Jesus he had experienced Jesus.

Peter and the disciples had something that none of the other people in these passages had. They had three years with Jesus. They had invested in being with him, they had given up a lot along the way but they had experienced life with Jesus. They hadn’t settled for waiting on the outside to see if Jesus was going to redeem Israel. Even though at times they got caught up in thinking like the pharisees and being wowed like the crowds the whole of their experiences with Jesus lead them to understand that he was the Messiah.

So what does that have to do with us? Well the first thing I think we have to ask ourselves is who do we say Jesus is? Do we know him well enough to even give a good answer? I believe that being a christian isn’t so much about when and where we prayed for Jesus to save us from our sins as it is about the process that we go through when we surrender our kingdom-vision and begin investing in knowing him. This means the relationship is important. Those three years Jesus had with his disciples were very important! Every moment we have with Jesus is important. Because the experiences we have with Jesus will help us answer that question.

Who do I say Jesus is? God started a relationship with humanity in the beginning, you and I are part of that humanity. When I realize that I am a part of humanity that God has created to have a relationship with I have a better understand of who I am. That this life isn’t about me it’s about my God and the relationship I have with him. Jesus is the only one that can restore that relationship, he is the redeemer, the Messiah. “Our understanding of who God is and who we are drastically affects our understanding of who Christ is and why we need him”– David Platt (Radical pg 34).

Think about this. I dare you to ask the question, “Who do I say Jesus is? Do I really believe he is who I say he is?

-Caleb Ross Hunter

10/8/2013

Hope Interrupts…

“This may be a dark world but you don’t have to live in the dark. Hope interrupts.. Jesus Interrupts”

– Pastor Pete Hise

This morning I was listening to a message by Pete Hise, lead pastor at quest community church, in the current series titled “…Then hope interrupts”.  To be completely honest this message is what I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded that though the world around me may be dark, depressed and look rather hopeless we do not have to live in that darkness. Jesus is not just a promise to us he is the promise, the gift, the hope and the incarnation.

I have always heard that word incarnation or incarnational ministry, all through high school and almost every day at Bible college however, I always felt puzzled by it and confused, yet when Pastor Pete was talking about incarnation as in the context of jesus not just promising to bring us hope but being the hope it made a lot more sense. Not that I haven’t heard that before I am sure, but this time it sunk in. It actually means a lot more when I begin to understand the magnitude of Jesus being human, present and the Hope.

Pete mentioned in his sermon that for the people of Jesus time God felt distant, far off and for the greek and roman gods unthinkable that god would make himself known in a tangible way to humanity. The jews knew of the prophesies in Isaiah yet had trouble seeing Jesus because he Interrupted their picture of God and what the savior was going to come and do for them.

God is not distant, he is not far off and he is not simply a promise for the future. Jesus came incarnate. Human as the rest of us. He came as hope. He interrupted the disciples lives and forever changed their world. he wants to interrupt our lives if we will let him.

Trying to grasp Jesus as the incarnation, the hope, shatters part of my false picture of Jesus. I am no longer holding tightly to what I imagine Jesus to be in far of heaven but allowing God to renew my mind and thoughts about who jesus really is. Even after years of studying the Bible I need God to renew my ideas of who he is and restore my hope.

To often we focus on everything that we think will bring us worldly hope. When I was without a job this summer I was guilty of just making my hope come from the prospects of getting a job, or even now I have been guilty of putting my hope in my desire to be engaged or getting a new car or all these other things that the world screams I need, YET they leave me without any real tangible living hope.

Jesus is the hope. Jesus is the hope that needs to interrupt our lives on a daily basis.

Jesus Doesn’t ever say he is going to save us from our troubles and hardships, the storms are still going to come but Jesus does say that he will walk with us through the storm.

Open your Bible.

Allow Jesus to interrupt your day, your week, your life.

Do you need some Hope?

You will find it with Jesus.

Just today I was watching a youtube video about an interview with N.T. Wright who as my theology professor would always remind us is the modern day leading Scholar of the New Testament. In the interview Wright was asked if he had any tips on how we might read the Bible. He said “The Bible should be read Frequently and Throughly is the best answer… Allow the thing to wash over you “. 

That is a challenge to us. To frequently allow Jesus to interrupt our lives and throughly be reminded that He is our hope.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

P.s. Extra Stuff.

I would encourage everyone to listen to Pete’s message that can be found at

http://questcommunity.com/watch-listen/series-archive  under the “and then hope Interrupts icon.

Also the interview with N.T. Wright can be found here at

Day 30 “A Year of Thoughts”: Take a Walk

“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more because God took him away.” – Genesis 5:24

“Before he was taken, he was commend as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God’ because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” – Hebrews 11:5-6

On many nice sunny days and warm evenings I really enjoy taking walks through town and down the country roads. But those walks are best when I can share them with someone else. My best friend and I like to get out of town and walk through the fields.

The wind whistling in every direction, the tall dried grass clapping as if a parade were in line, the clouds making shapes like dragons or horses in the sky and the sun slowly setting to the west. The walk is full of adventure, excitement, long conversations and meaningful silence. The birds catch our eyes as they float and turn like synchronized areal swimmers. Our shoes kick up the dirt with each step we take.

Sometimes when we walk we don’t have a certain place to we have to go or anywhere to be. We are simply taking the time to walk together, to experience the day together, to get away and see that there is to see. On those walks we learn a lot about each other, we learn how ti slowdown, to skip together, to run, to sit, to stand and to pause to take in each moment like it might be our very last.

It’s walks like this with my best friend that I picture Enoch walking with God. As if they are best friends experiencing each step together. Seeing the world, God created, together. Each step of theit walk more intimate, God learning how Enoch sees the world and Enoch experiencing little by little the presence of God. A walk hardly a walk without a little conversation, the ones with Enoch and God are long and meaningful but not without pauses and silence that carry just as much meaning.

Enoch lived his faith, he walked with

God, he didn’t just practice the presence of God he got to experience it.

I long for me life to be like Enoch’s. For my faith to move me to daily walk with God, daily grow to know his presence more, to learn him, to be intimate with him, to hear and listen and have long conversations.

The story of Enoch is one of hope. Hope that through the weariness of our souls longing to walk with God, that God is already walking with us. Sometimes we have to wake up, open our eyes and see that God is right there, Maybe you should take a walk, get out of town and talk to God, he’s right there.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 29 “A Year of Thoughts”: Tell Me a Story

When I search back to the earliest memory in my life, the one thing that really stands out to me is the stories. Stories I would listen to and stories I would tell. As soon as I was able to talk I told stories. I’ve always had a wild imagination and that often flowed through when I told stories.

I remember as a kid going on long car rides with my family and my sisters asking me to tell stories. Perhaps at the age of four or so I had discovered who I was and then spent eighteen years trying to forget. My creativity and passion would show through my stories. Perhaps my purpose is to tell stories or more rather to live a story. Our lives are stories, an oral tradition of new experiences that are marked by our days. Each day, each moment is a part of our story.

The world around us often tries to read our story but for them to assume they know the characters and the plot is useless unless they honestly and intentionally get to know the characters. For the world to even understand your story you have to tell the truth. You have to be honest with yourself and stop trying to be someone you are not. We have to discover who God made us to be. We have to learn to tell our story by the way we live our lives.

Today in church, the sermon was over the story of Cain and Able. The bible is full of stories and it seems as God is screaming the fact to us on each page that your life is a story. A story worth telling, worth living. One of the things mentioned in the sermon this morning was that Abel’s life still spoke after Cain killed him (Hebrews 11:4). We don’t know much about Abel’s life other than the short story about his offering and his death. But that story still speaks.

The point of Cain and Abel is one of faith and unbelief. In faith Abel offered his sacrifice to the Lord. Cain’s attitude and offering was poor and he allowed his anger to push him to unbelief. He had a choice how the story was to go. God asked Cain, “why are you angry?” Yet Cain would not listen, he killed Abel out of unbelief that his life could be more, That God is outside of time and there is more potential in Cain to turn his life story into one of worship like his brother.

We face this same choice in our story. Our lives are a story told by non other that you. Yes guided hopefully by the grace and love of God, yet we still have the choice. To live by faith, faith that moves mountains, faith that says tomorrow can be better than today, faith that says God has so much more for my life than the sin within me. Faith that transforms our lives, heals our wounds, redeems our past and leads us to move through our discontent to live an even more unbelievable story.

For much of my life I was like Cain. God kept asking me why I was angry? Why I didn’t want to believe there was more? I allowed the people that were trying to read my story assume everything was fine, I allowed them to put assumptions and expectations on me based off of what little they knew. I was angry because didn’t want to be honest I didn’t want them to know me. To know that I had unbelief, to know that I doubted my dreams just because of things people said.

I hid behind my stories because it was safe. Now I want people to know the true story. I want to be honest and real. Even if that shaders the world’s simple understanding of who I am. Even if that means it hurts. I’m not angry because my story makes me who I am and my tomorrow is shaped by the way I live.

 

What is your story?

 

Does the world really honestly know your story?

 

What dreams have you given up on?

 

How can we tell our stories?

 

When my children someday say “tell me a story”, I will. The Good the bad and the ugly.

 

Tell A Story, Live your story.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 28 “A Year of Thoughts”: Eat this book

“Reading is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated taken into the soul- eaten, chewed, gnawed, and received in unhurried delight.”- Eugene H. Peterson

This quote is one of the many that has stood out to me as I have had the opportunity to read Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading by Eugene H. Peterson. If you were able to see either my dorm room or my room back in Indiana you would find shelves, drawers and stacks of books. Some of them I have read and reread. Some wait their turn to be read and some may someday be opened for the first time. But reading is a gift. One of the early points that Peterson makes in this book is that the Bible is not simply another book.

Growing up in family that reads, a lot, I have been around books and have heard the continence of the Bible from a very young age, but it’s not about the books that you read but how you respond. Peterson’s in this book is trying to explain that eating the Bible is not a book that you can read and not respond to. It should move you, effect you and change you. Reading is a gift but scriptural reading needs to go deeper than a surface level. It needs to be eaten, chewed, gnawed, and taken in a way that is refreshing and nurturing to our souls.

I understand this now, that reading is like eating. You take in the information, but you can’t stop there. You can’t just take in the food without digesting it. It’s pointless to shove a banana down your throat without chewing it first. Your body was not made for steak to be taken in and passed right through, likewise Peterson continually reminds us in this book that we are meant to consume God’s word for more than just the mere means of saying we have read it. We must eat it. It would be unfortunate to have read the Bible or any book for that matter and not be in some way challenged or changed.

Our culture feeds off the mindless activities that do not have any intention of moving our souls to wake up and to thrive. Reading the Bible should not be a mindless activity that leaves us with no reason or place to respond. In the words of Peterson “In our reading of this book we come to realize that what we need is not primarily informational, telling us things about God and ourselves, but formational, shaping us into our true being”(pg 24). When we are able to move from just reading to being transformed by the words applied to our lives, that is the point.

We become more out of our reading. It is not all about knowing. What we take in through our minds should penetrate our hearts. Through all the translations of the Bible we have found that the words have become readable for almost anyone in any country, however, Peterson alludes to the text as being more than readable. It should be livable. It is liveable. “The Bible… is the text for living our lives. It reveals a God-created, God-ordered, God-blessed world in which we find ourselves at home and whole”(pg 18).

Peterson, writes of the example in the apostle John being given the command to eat the book that is given to him by the angel. He did not deny the fact that the very words that he was writing must be consumed and lived out through his life. John experienced the gospel first hand. He lived with Jesus and learned to make his teaching a part of his life. John ministered to the broken and poor. He lived the words of Christ. He took them in and ate them, not to simply survive but the thrive and to show Christ to the very world that he lived in.

“Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of our lives”(pg 20). To follow the example of John is our goal and challenge that Peterson puts forth. But how do we do that? How do we move from just being a reader to being an eater? Moving from just consuming for the knowledge of knowing all the words of the text to assimilating them into our lives. First we must allow the Holy trinity to work through our reading. We have to keep it personal, real, honest and applicable to our lives today. It seems easy to say but harder to do.

We must allow God to speak through the scriptures. It is his voice that we hear in the words and should lead us to live them out. God is at his core relational so it would only make sense that when he calls us to take in his words and apply them it is in a personally relational way. When we eat the scripture we are participating in that relationship. There is this personal understanding that God can work through and in our lives. When we can understand that God can work in us and change us, the text becomes almost in a sense more eatable, more applicable, and more personal.

Peterson gives a great example of the tool of Lectio Divina. Simply put Lectio Divina is practice of or way of reading the scriptures that guards us from doing so in a depersonalized way. The opposite of this kind of reading would be skimming simple to take credit for reading something. Lectio Divina is more than that. It’s a deeper more personal reading of the text. It’s slow. It goes against our consumer mindset of devouring what we read with no assimilation or growth. We consume the text through spiritual reading. Lectio Divina means spiritual reading.

How do we spiritual read something? For centuries the practice of Lectio Divina was carried out in a slow and contemplative way. Contemplative means to slow down and take in. Like eating again contemplative spiritual reading is reading that is meant to nourish and become a way of living. There are four parts to spiritual reading. The reading, the mediation, the prayer, and contemplation.

The reading as Peterson explained through most of the first half of the book is getting in the word and chewing on it. Reading may be understanding the context, style or way in which it was written and pouring through that reading. An example of this for me is taking a pen to what I am reading, writing between the line or underling the voice that seems to be speaking through the text. This reading takes intention and openness to grasp the many metaphors of scripture.

This openness and understanding is carried over to the second part of the spiritual reading which is mediation. This is often where we have to think upon the text and allow God to reveal himself through it. Going back to the Peterson quote, “The Bible… is the text for living our lives. It reveals a God-created, God-ordered, God-blessed world in which we find ourselves at home and whole”(pg 18). When we are reading we have to listen for God’s voice in our lives, that shows through when we mediate and continue to eat the words slowly.

This mediation of the text is also paired with prayer. Prayer is the third step of the spiritual reading. From my understanding of the reading this book, prayer is a part of the relational and personal act of interacting with the text and God speaking into us. In prayer we are in conversation with God over the text and allowing him to move through our words and requests. “Prayer is language used in relation to God… the most universal language, the lingua franca of the human heart”(pg 103).

It’s from prayer that we move to contemplation. This almost a soaking in of the reading, prayer and mediation. In contemplation we might do all the other steps again, but ultimately contemplation should move us to application. Where the text is integrated into our lives. It become not only what we have read but what we are living. That is what the Bible calls us to, is to live it.

In the closing chapters of Peterson’s book he writes about the many translations that have come over time. However, through all of those translations the message has stayed the same. The story from Genesis to Revelation is still the same and it still call us to live. To eat this book and find true life in our savior Jesus Christ.

In all I really enjoyed reading this book and have found it very helpful in my understanding and application of spiritual reading. It challenges me to eat what I read. To take it in and apply it. Reading is not always the problem, moving to a place where the reading becomes life is the challenge. Peterson through his book Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading has challenged me to rediscover my passion for reading the scripture, but not only reading it but living it.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

P.S. sorry for the length of this post but my hope is that you might be able to take something away from this as I have.

Day 16 “A Year of Thoughts”: What’s in a Name? Empower

Empower, empower my feeble frame

To make, to make a truthful name

That is, that is lived full and fully brave

To give and take this I do claim

 

A name can be empowering when the name is given with intention and purpose. My parents chose my name from the Bible character Caleb. The man who along with Joshua gave a good confident report after spying on the promise land, the man that summoned the people to listen and be brave, he was described as a man with a different spirit and served the Lord wholeheartedly, and was one of two men from that Generation that was able to enter the promise land. (Numbers 13:30, 14:5-9, 14:24)

 

The name Caleb means brave or bull dog. Much of my childhood could be described as anything but brave. I was a whiny, wimpy, skinny kid who was easily picked on. It took me years to realize that my name meant something, and I didn’t always have to live as the whiny wimpy kid. When I found out what my name meant it empowered me to be able to live up to my name. To be brave. To live wholeheartedly for God will require us to be brave.

 

What is your name?

 

What does it mean?

 

Let it empower you to be more than you ever thought you were, are, or could be.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter