What Glenn Writes

There are times I find myself staring at this computer screen and I know the exact topic of the article and where this piece will go. After all, I have been doing this for a while and I should have some sort of plan on what to write, how to write, and… wow, how pompous am I?

Let me tell you about the other times I find myself typing out the first few words with no destination in sight… times when the Lord picks it up after the first few words and takes it from there.

Those articles receive more comments than when I’m driving. (Ha! That’ll teach Glenn to be pompous!)

Over the course of the last few days, the articles were not of my choosing and seemed to fall in the area of loving others, even when it is difficult. These are the articles where I wonder if the message is for me or for someone else reading… ok, yeah, as strange as it may sound, I learn from my own writing. Yesterday’s article sparked more than one reader to comment on how difficult it is to love arrogant or pompous people… (Are you catching this, Glenn?)

In Luke 14, a Pharisee invites Jesus to a meal or celebration at his house. Other Pharisees and leaders in the church had also been invited. We pick up what happened at the meal in Luke 14:7-11:

When He (Jesus) noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, He told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

His words apply to all His followers, even those who write daily blogs. When we look at those Jesus was describing at the Pharisee’s gathering, we are finding the type of leader described in Luke 20:46-47:

“Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.  They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”

Jesus calls them hypocrites in Matthew 6:5:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Jesus is highlighting those who like to shout out their own praises and who are good at working when the spotlight is on them, making an effort for everyone to see what they accomplish.

When I read about His response to these events, I find instructions not to follow their examples. Instead, Jesus is telling me to “…take the lowest seat in the house…” We are not called to say anything to the arrogant or pompous; we are not called to rebuke them (this is His job); we are not called to point them out; and we are not called to make fun of them. Instead, we are called to just take the lowest seat in the house.

This is God’s instruction to follow, but it comes with one more emphasis in Matthew 5:44:

“…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

(Aw, man! Come on, Lord? Are you serious?)

I believe the Lord is desperately serious on this matter. If we call ourselves believers, His followers, then the world will know us by how we love others. As mentioned yesterday, this is not a love we can work up in ourselves, but a love only coming from God.

Jesus gives us an example of this love by His call to the Pharisees throughout a passage beginning around Matthew 23:13. Sometimes these are called the “Woe passages…” where Jesus is often portrayed as yelling these words with venom, fury, or anger, but I challenge you to read these statements today knowing the love He had for them and recognizing this would be one of His last opportunities to get His point across. I do not believe He was yelling in anger, but crying out in desperation to reach their hearts. Instead of words of rage, I believe He was near tears for the arrogant and pompous.

Matthew 23:13 
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Picture a look of desperation on His face.

Matthew 23:15 
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

Listen to His plea, a cry to reach their hearts, to open their eyes in love and not anger.

Matthew 23:16 
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

Instead of shaking His finger at them, picture Him crying out these words, holding His hands in front of Him, pleading with them to understand.

Matthew 23:25 
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Instead of hearing the fury, picture the tears in His eyes and feel the torment in His heart.

Matthew 23:27 
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

At the end of the passage, His love for them is captured in His description in Matthew 23:37.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

I find it just as difficult as you may find it to love the arrogant and pompous as Jesus calls us to love them. I also recognize myself falling into this category at times, grateful for the forgiveness and love expressed by my family and friends. Perhaps this is the love required to change their hearts or pierce their protective shield of apathy?

I do not believe we are capable of this kind of love without the Lord. I know for a fact I do not have the strength required to seat myself at the lowest seat in the house when I really want to choke someone, but this too, comes from the Lord.

Ah… I can see I have learned something today from these words and have a whole new area of conversation with the Lord. You can contact me if you are struggling with this sort of prayer, but I can tell you we will be praying for the same thing for both of us… and that’s ok, too.
 

Glenn Sasscer

Please share this blog to your family, friends, or co-workers. They can sign up for RSS feed or email delivery below, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook (I accept all new friends).

www.glennsasscer.com

Gerry Soviar, my good friend and mentor, has quoted St. Francis of Assisi a few times in making his point to me, “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary.”  I’m not sure I have this as a word for word reiteration, but the meaning is conveyed here. I believe St. Francis was merely paraphrasing what Jesus was telling His disciples in John 13:34-35:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

How would anyone know the disciples followed Jesus? › Continue reading

The local tavern, the Portage Inn, in our small village has a bike night a couple times a week. I’m not sure if it would be called a biker bar or not, as it is more of a local tavern with non-motorcycle riding regulars going there for dinner and drinks. A favorite for many are the cheese balls, real-cheese pizza, and French fries… yes, true vehicles for grease, but delicious just the same.

So, would it be a biker bar, tavern, or diner? Maybe Bikerverner? Tavdiniker? › Continue reading

I am glad to see my teens still running to my wife or I when they have a scrap, cut, or what they used to call, “a boo boo”. I guess even with older children it sparks something inside me to be able to comfort them, ease their pain, and apply some sort of a band-aid or protection. Call it the parenting instinct, love, or whatever you want, I believe it is something built into each of us with children.

Just as we are glad to see our children come to us with their “boo boos”, I am confident God feels the same compassion for us when we take our scraps and pains to Him. I believe He welcomes us, requests us to come to Him, and is waiting to embrace us, but we are many times reluctant to enter into this healing grace.

Why? I think most times because we want to figure out how we got hurt, why we got hurt, or we want revenge and retribution in the situation. This is like a child falling off the slide wanting to know why he fell, how he fell, and then wanting the slide disassembled… really, the best thing for the child is to accept the injury, attend to the injury, and move on. › Continue reading

My daughter wrote a poem for a dear friend battling cancer. She is my guest blogger today as she shares this poem with you.

A Dance With God

He holds my hands,
And I hold His eyes,
It eases the pain,
The torment the lies.
 
When life gets tough,
I’ll ride on His back,
He protects me,
Blocks every attack.
 
He holds me close,
Never letting go,
He’s so tall,
Yet He leans down low.
 
He says shall we dance,
And the music starts to play,
Its so peaceful,
Only He makes me feel this way.
 
And then I dance with God,
We don’t dance to fast,
It could go on forever,
But the music won’t last.
 
I’ll stray away,
Cuz of me He cried,
But He’ll always have me back,
With arms open wide.

I’ll get hit with rocks,
I’ll fall off His shoulders,
But when I look back,
He’s holding the boulders.
 
All that hits me,
He knows I can take,
And when its all over,
A better me it will make.
 
I may feel forgotten,
But He’s always right there,
Holding me tight,
With extra care.
 
When I cry He wipes away my tears,
when I am scared He quiets my fears.
 
And then I dance with God,
We don’t dance to fast,
It could go on forever,
But the music won’t last.
 
I’ll stray away,
Cuz of me He cried,
But He’ll always have me back,
With arms open wide.

By Karli Sasscer

My thanks to Karli for sharing this beautiful encouragement and blessing. I am struck by how her words reveal the depth of her faith, and how much I can learn from my own children.

Glenn Sasscer

Please share this blog to your family, friends, or co-workers. They can sign up for RSS feed or email delivery below, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook (I accept all new friends).

www.glennsasscer.com

A couple of common questions I get is how do I know God is there and what is “all this God business” about? I believe these are common questions and very valid questions for someone who has never experienced God. The answer is always the same for me: Because I have a relationship with Him or “it is about the relationship”.

This response can be mind-boggling for some folks, but I don’t answer this way just to boggle their mind… whatever boggling one’s mind means, I answer this way because it is simply the only truthful way I know to answer.

For me, this answer is complete, concise, and fully describes my faith. Sometimes their eyebrows go up and they change the subject while wondering about my medication, other times the answer will provoke more questions about this relationship and I begin to share my testimony. › Continue reading

I referred to the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith in yesterday’s article, found here .

I place myself in this position each morning in prayer, knowing full well I am severely lacking in so many ways when I stand before the Lord. My natural request of Him is to increase my faith and prepare me for what He has planned in the day… because really… man, some days seem to take on their own personality and are out to get me.

Oh Lord, just increase my faith, huh?

I believe Jesus is faithful to answer this request, though it is not with a sweep of His hand, a spoken word, or anything we can describe with the word “instantly”. Instantly would not teach us. Instantly would not open our eyes. Instantly would not get rid of some of the wrong ways of thinking, reacting, or justifying our decisions. Instead, we find ourselves in the same position as the disciples some 2,000 years ago, making a request and wondering how the Lord is going to work it out in our lives. › Continue reading

I read about a test conducted at MIT that illustrates the general character of a large portion of our society today. Now, first of all, I really do not like lumping all of society into one group or trying to characterize America or some other country by a single test conducted somewhere at some time by someone, but I just did… why? To illustrate my point, of course.

Dan Ariely, who holds joint appointments in MIT’s Media Lab and Sloan School of Management, performed a test in the dorms at their school. Here’s how the test worked: Ariely and his students went around and left six-packs of Coke in randomly selected dorm refrigerators all over campus. When he checked back in a few days, all of the Cokes were gone.

But when they later placed plates of six loose dollar bills in those same refrigerators, not a single bill was missing when they checked back. Even though the value was comparable, and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent, people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?

Well, for one, because a Coke just tastes really good! I mean, if they did the test with Pepsi, those would all still be sitting there… who in their right mind would justify stealing a Pepsi. › Continue reading

One of the life changing revelations the Lord has given me is to recognize my weakness and His strength in my life. As an American male, this is big… I have a huge ego and ginormous pride; a mountain of macho crap the Lord could not get around, but had to pierce and go through in order to get to my heart.

The Lord is like that, isn’t He? He doesn’t go around walls or over walls; He goes through them in order to get to us. And, from my experience, He doesn’t let anything get in His way, including our pride, our ego, or our silly ideas about how well we are or how good we are doing. When He goes through those walls or mountains of egotistical pride, we not only get uncomfortable, but we start to respond in a variety of ways: denial, indifference, building more walls, excuses, reclusion, pretending we are so ‘Johnny Bravo cool’, and flat out running in the opposite direction. › Continue reading

On Friday of last week, I wrote an article for this blog that may have freaked a few people out. I’m ok with that, as I write about life and guess what? Life experiences can be pretty freaky sometimes. If you do not have freaky moments in life, you are probably dead and just don’t know it yet.

I wrote about spiritual warfare. You can ignore it, say it doesn’t exist, or pretend you are immune to the battles being waged against you, but the bottom line is the only way to win a war is to recognize you are in one.

On Friday, I mentioned being in the presence of demons as the most terrible times of my entire life. I stick by this statement, and yes… there were a few times. I also pointed out I never worshipped the devil, practiced voodoo, played around with black magic, or messed around with anything like that of a serious nature.

This is significant; this statement points out we are all vulnerable. You may think you are not walking in my shoes and will not follow the same path, but again… I never did anything to entice the encounters. We are targets of the enemy, so how will you respond if or when you find yourself in those crosshairs? › Continue reading