Enliven the eyes of your minds with me for a moment.

There is a grand feast.  The setting is like that of a fairy tale; a palatial castle, cool evening air, a long cobbled drive, an inviting glow wasps over the estate.  An open gate stands at the entrance and joyous noises of friendly reverie billow from every open window.  

Within sits the table, an imposing, charismatic, and inviting King at it’s head.  All around the table sit friends, men and women of boldness, confidence, and renown.  They exude a sense of joy. They delight in the pleasure of the company and the richness of the bounty.  Each has brought in their own splendor.

In the corner sits a timid, urchin-like young girl.  She wears a tattered dress and looks continuously with a longing in her eye toward the Head at the table.  Every once in a while, she scoots ever so slightly toward the feet of her target before looking down again at her ragged self and sliding back once more toward the wall in the distance.  She wears a look of angst, desire, longing, need, self-loathing, and dismay.  She dares not dream of advancing closer, she simply can’t belong.

At the gate outside sits an old pauper.  He watches the festivities through the well lit windows and imagines himself inside.  He awes at the lightness of the mood, the freedom of the interactions, the peaceful merriment of the occasion. He never stirs.  He dreams and wonders, but never even considers moving toward the door.  

Which one are you?

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.      John 15:15

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.   Revelation 1:6

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.       Revelation 21:23-25

To all who have believed and call him Savior and Lord:

He has called you friend.  He has made you royalty.  

You have splendor.  Bring it to the table.  

Yes, this is for you dear urchin friend.  Step up, He’s holding your place.

There’s a story in the Old Testament I just really don’t like too much.  Judges chapter 11.  A foolish judge makes a stupid vow and, even more stupidly, upholds it.  The whole thing makes my heart hurt.  It makes me question God, question the man, question…just question.  

The story goes like this:  a judge named Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord that if He will deliver the Ammonites into his hands, he will sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever comes out his door to meet him upon his return from battle.  

Moron.  

I’d like to know how many chickens and sheep live in this guys house that he obviously believes are going to hear him coming and rush out to greet him after his long absence!

No shocker here:  his only child, his daughter, comes out to meet him.

He gives her time to grieve with her friends and then, “he did to her as he had vowed.” (Judges 11:39)

Why?  Why on earth would this guy think that the Lord would find this a pleasing offering to Him?  Read Jeremiah 32:35, God doesn’t like this kind of stuff, it’s “detestable” to Him.  Upholding a vow, now that’s a good thing, God’s pretty clear on His likeness of that (Psalm 15:4).  Not making vows to begin with, He wisely counsels in favor there (Matthew 5:33-37).

You just have to ask, what made Jephthah think this was something pleasing to the Lord?

I’m going to give you the scary answer:  Cross Contamination.

Ever heard the name Molech?  He (I use that term loosely) was the god of the Ammonites.  He’s the one you read about in Jeremiah 32, he’s the one to whom the pagans offered their children in sacrifice.  He’s the type of evil little god who would like that sort of thing.  

Remember who it was Jephthah was fighting against, who God gave him the victory over?

The Ammonites.  The same pagan people who worshiped this awful god Molech.  

The Ammonites shared some property with the Hebrews.  The Jews owned it, the Ammonites didn’t like that, that’s what the war was over.  They all lived right there around one another and they weren’t getting along.  

They lived among one another.

Their cultures mixed.  

Jephthah’s views of what his GOD would like took on some of the colorings of what their gods would like.  

Jephthah knew about the God of All Creation.  He writes a nice long letter detailing some of His activities of old.  He didn’t, however, seem to know Him at all.  What he knew was some contaminated version of old stories and cultural traditions.  He had allowed the world around him to reshape God Himself.  

Rick Burgess of the Rick and Bubba Show last week used the phrase, “hippy Jesus.”  It’s this idea that we can change who God is by just believing something different.  We can mold Him into any sort of god we choose, but notice, at that point He is no longer GOD, but just a god we’ve contrived.

The God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator, Sustainer, the Almighty is, was, and will always be.  He is constant and unchanging, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  That, my friends, means that we cannot change Him.  We cannot choose who He will and will not be.  

Jephthah had grown up hearing of the human sacrifices, he knew about vows and altars.  He allowed the world around him to push God into a mold.  HE doesn’t fit molds.  

Here’s the really scary part, he believed he had to do this.  It never occurred to him that his daughter would come out the door.  He was heartbroken, but felt so sure that this was something he must do that he did it through tears and agony.  He really believed this mess.  He had no idea that what he believed about his offering was not at all what God had in mind.

Test everything.  Hold on to the good.                                I Thessalonians 5:21

Everything.  Test every world view you hold.  Test every tradition you ascribe to.  Test every opinion you stand by.  Test every motivation that moves you.  Test everything.  Test it by the standard.  Test it by the unwavering, unchanging, ever true and consistent Word of the Living God.  

Like a game of grapevine, the original word was delivered and over time, through the biases and opinions and natural propensities of fallible people, the word gets contaminated.  In the end it doesn’t sound much like the original at all.  

Go to the Original.  Test your words, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, inclinations by the Original Word and the solid standard Who Breathed It.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.           Colossians 4:18

There has been much discussion throughout history of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”  This phrase in Colossians, Galatians 6:11, and others have opened the door for many theories concerning his eyesight.  

I believe that every other time I have read one of these strange little side notes, my mind has turned to this.  What of Paul’s affliction, what was wrong with his eyes, was it degenerative, did he die blind?  The investigative side took the words and went down that road.  

Today the Lord, as He beautifully does, took something I’d read so many times and allowed me to see it from another angle.  What of the men who wrote for him?

Paul was called to such inconceivable greatness in the Kingdom of God.  He was used so mightily and so expansively–his work made my faith possible!  None other had considered that Christ’s sacrifice might have been enough for me too.  Paul was pivotal in God’s plan of worldwide evangalization.  

And he couldn’t even see to write.

Wouldn’t you imagine that at some point God said he needed to be careful with those letters he desired to send, that correspondence he’d like to maintain because those words would go down in history as God’s own.  For a man who couldn’t write a legible word, wouldn’t he have thought, “You want me to be your pen through all of history and you haven’t even given me the ability to see the words on the page?”

I believe I would have questioned my ability to hear, I would have doubted His genius in the matter, I would have wondered how much easier it might be if I could just sit down and do all these great things He’d called me to.

So why couldn’t he?  Why did God inflict him with a thorn that seemed to be a deterrent, an obstacle in the job God Himself had given him to do?

You will never accomplish all that God has for you without a few ghost writers on your path.

Could self-sufficiency speed things up? Sure.  Could it flow better and save arguments and hours of compromise discussions if one person could just buckle down and do the task with the blessing of God’s time?  It does make sense.  

However, God will never call you to anything for which you must isolate yourself from other believers in order to accomplish it. Some roads must be walked lonely, some calls and some stands may feel like they happen solo, some decisions must be made that leave you the odd man out.  But in order to fulfill all your greatness, all the wonder for which He made you, He will never have you totally self sufficient.  Humility is in need.  Only in that will we give Him His due.

For any call He has on your life, there will likely be a gap or two in the chain of ability.  There will be some part of the plan that you are simply unable to accomplish or accomplish sufficiently.  There are aspects of your own life and purpose that require the participation of other believers.  Some jobs you are not equipped to do.

For all Paul’s confidence and influence, God kept him in a place of humble need.  It may well have been this imposition which led to Paul’s absolute delight in the unity and camaraderie of the Body of Christ.  No one in history seems to have enjoyed companionship in the Kingdom like Paul.  Perhaps it’s because, in his need, he saw clearly the value of it.

What have you been called to?  What role might you need to turn to others to fulfill?  What burdens are meant for a team of oxen? Just because God has called you to great and awesome tasks for His glory does not mean that He has called you to accomplish them without others willing to grab their pens and write for you.