Naked Street Preaching & Other Crazy Requests

"Don't read the first few chapters as merely an allegory. Read them as a story of actual events happening between God and two very real people."

Those instructions may sound simple enough, but they weren't. It was easy to understand the text as symbolic. But to imagine that the events literally happened? Well, it was hard for me to wrap my head around God asking someone, anyone to do what was written on the page in front of me.

As I settled in to read the first three chapters, I already knew the storyline, but still, the second verse made me shake my head: "the LORD said to Hosea, 'Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD'" (Hos. 1:2).

I held out some hope that maybe the text didn't really mean what it said. But when I looked up what "wife of harlotry" meant, I found (sigh) scholars divided--and neither option provided the easy-out answer I had hoped for. Either God was asking Hosea to marry a woman who was already a harlot or who he knew would become a harlot after their marriage.

Either way? It's a lose/lose situation for Hosea. But did he quote from Exodus about the "thou shalt not commit adultery" commandment? Did he say, "I don't know if my heart can take that." No. He simply obeyed.

I have a hard time relating to characters like Hosea. I'm just not wired to be a "simply" do anything person. Even minor decisions like what faucet to buy: I want to research it, pray about it, talk about it, comparison shop--I want time to decide on my answer. It's genetic; I see in my children that same desire to defer any immediate action that this mama requests.

But not Hosea. The next verse reads, "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son" (Hos. 1:3, my italics). And after that? She bore two other children, but this time, Scripture uses a different pronoun: "she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter...she conceived and gave birth to a son" (Hos. 1:6, 8, my italics). Not "his" but rather "a" child.

Already, it seems this wife whom God commanded Hosea to marry has played the harlot and conceived two children in adultery. And before you know it, she has abandoned Hosea and the children.

But God doesn't leave it at that--hurting husband, hurting children. No, He asks for more, telling Hosea "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress" (Hos. 3:1). God knew that despite it all, Hosea did love Gomer. I'm not sure how, but he did. And again, Hosea obeys God, goes out, pays the price of a slave to buy her and brings her back home.

This isn't logical, to take back a woman who has hurt you before. I'm sure modern psychologists would have some "enabling" comments to make about Hosea. But man's logic wasn't what drove Hosea to obey God fully--instead, it was that he obviously feared God more than he feared man. Hosea knew she would play him for a fool in front of his entire village (and maybe more than one village). He knew she would be unfaithful. He knew she would abandon their children who would be permanently tainted by their mother's actions. And the only possible rational explanation for his actions is that he feared God.

Looking back through the prophets, this isn't the first time God has asked someone to do something completely mind-boggling in order to give the people of Israel a visual lesson about pending judgment.

Consider the prophet Isaiah: "the LORD spoke...to him [Isaiah], 'Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.' And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. Then the LORD said, 'Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame'" (Is. 20:2-4).

This is the equivalent of God speaking to you today and saying, "Get naked Jennifer!! Hope you're in good shape because for the next three years, there are no shoes or shirt required for this prophecy."

You can rest assured, my response wouldn't be simple. "Uh, God, good lesson here about the nakedness symbolizing the shame coming at the hands of the Assyrians, but do we really need to use a live model? And three years!? How about one. If we use the Internet, we can reach the same number people in a third of the time?"

But again, Isaiah is just like Hosea--they don't ask questions. They just sacrifice their standing in the community, their personal lives, their everything in obedience to God.

These two events don't even begin to list the wild and crazy sacrifices God has asked people to make all throughout the Bible. But what I find interesting is that these sacrifices aren't required for everyone, but were specific to one man in one time. Yet, there are other requirements in Scripture that apply to all, like "Love the lord your God with all your heart" or "love your neighbor as yourself."

To me, this seems to be a lesson worth learning, that just like with Hosea and Isaiah, sometimes God asks us as individuals to sacrifice or do/not do something ______ (fill in the blank) even if Scripture doesn't require that sacrifice.

Perhaps He asks us to sacrifice something that is a stumbling block to others or even something that could become a stumbling block to ourselves.

The next time I think God is asking me to sacrifice something for him, my first thought might be "how crazy is that!" or "that's too embarrassing!" But I hope my next thought is "Yes, Lord. I'm willing."

A Drink of Cistern Water

Once the thermometer inches above 80 degrees, our household begins consuming more water to replace what the body loses through profuse sweating in the south Louisiana sun.

Over the past two weeks, even my eighteen-month-old twins have learned the word “waa.” Although they scream whenever the straw sucks air at the bottom of the cup, lack of water isn’t something I have to worry about.

I take for granted being able to walk in the kitchen and turn on the tap for a high pressured stream of crystal clear, filtered water. But in other parts of the world, water is much more difficult to come by.

In the deserts of ancient Israel, fresh, pure living water was scarce, which led people to dig individual or community cisterns for storing large quantities of rainwater. A typical cistern was 2-3 feet wide at the top, 15-20 feet deep and was carved out of solid limestone to hold several thousands of gallons of rainwater underground .* Still, during the severe drought of summer, many would dry up.

Although most cisterns were covered with a large chunk of rock to keep out critters in search of a drink, you can imagine how much debris accumulated over time in these giant water vats. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Cisterns, belonging to the common natives, are rarely cleansed, and the inevitable scum which collects is dispersed by plunging the pitcher several times before drawing water. When the water is considered to be bad, a somewhat primitive cure is applied by dropping earth into the cistern, so as to sink all impurities with it, to the bottom.”

In other words, having access to cistern water was better than having no water at all, but the water was stagnant and stale, at best. And at worst, it was contaminated with animal excrement that washed in the cistern along with the rainwater and perhaps even small dead animals who fell in and drowned.

Knowing how cistern water would taste, why would anyone choose it if she had access to living water?

In Jeremiah 2:13, God criticizes Israel for just that…for choosing to dig its own cisterns rather than rely on Him for the refreshing, living water: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

The problem isn't the physical act of digging an underground rain barrel. Instead, it's the attitude of self-sufficiency. When the rain failed to fall, Israel would rely on its cisterns to provide rather than on God to sustain them through the hard times.

Jesus tried to explain this concept to the Samaritan woman, a woman who would have understood the benefits of living water over cistern water: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water…. Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:10, 13-14).

Christ identifies Himself as the living water that purifies, as the only sustainable source of water…quite the opposite of what a cistern provides.

Each day, we can choose to carve out our own cistern. To do so means we are choosing to trust in ourselves to meet our needs and wants instead of relying on God to satisfy our thirst. And since by nature, we are all broken, human vessels, we should realize that trying to provide for ourselves in our own strength, with our own talents, through our own successes—it’s useless. The water collected by our own hands will seep out slowly until we are dry and unable to provide for ourselves any longer.

My prayer is to leave the cistern of self-sufficiency and rely in faith on the fountains of living water like David did: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1-2).

* “Ancient Cisterns” Bible Background Study. http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/cisterns.html.

Reading the Rule Book

Growing up, I lived for Saturday morning cartoons—the one day a week I could watch TV for hours (as long as I got up early enough). One of the more memorable images was the introductory segment to SchoolHouse Rock. In the clip, four cartoon kids stretch taller as the theme song plays, “As your body grows bigger…”

Then, the lanky-looking boy shouts, “It's great to learn 'Cause knowledge is power!” Suddenly, lightning flashes cover the screen. When the boy appears again, his head now rests atop an uber-muscular body dressed in a superhero costume.

The message is clear and simple—gaining knowledge is extremely important.

In one of Jesus’ parables, He states, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Luke 12:48). One interpretation of this verse is that God's ultimate judgment will take into consideration the amount of knowledge the person has concerning God's will. In other words, “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.”

But whereas I’ve always looked at this verse as God judging based on how much knowledge a person does have, what if it actually means how much knowledge a person should have?

Consider the nation of Israel during the time of the prophet Hosea. God basically says, “Enough. I’ve had all I’m going to take from you people. Prepare for my judgment.”

In case the Israelites were unsure what the charges against them were, God presents them with a wealthy list of their sin, starting with “swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery” (Hos. 4:2). It’s almost like God was going down the “Breaking the 10 Commandments Checklist” and ticking off each one in turn.

Then, God explains why the sin is so rampant in the land: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hos. 4:6, my italics).

How is this possible? How could God’s chosen people not know the law He gave them? In the time of Moses, God had instructed the priests to, every seven years, “Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God” (Deut. 31:12-13).

One thought is the priests were so corrupt that they weren’t reading the law to the people so that they really didn’t know. Another thought is the people knew in their heads but rejected the law with their hearts because sin was more attractive.

Either way, what is important to note is the people were still responsible for knowing and obeying God’s law.

With this in mind, consider the Bible that sits on the shelf in your house, in my house.

The knowledge, the word of God, the truth of God—it is ours. Whether or not we do have the knowledge, we should.

In other words, when the time comes, saying, “I didn’t know…” or “My preacher didn’t tell me…” won’t cut it when the word of God rests in our possession.

Whether or not we choose to read it, we will still be held accountable for the knowledge stored within its pages.

Craving the Forbidden

She tells herself this week is the one. No more chocolate. No more white bread. No more anything with processed sugar or refined flour. And then it starts.

The cravings.

Where she used to go all day without thinking of sweets, now that they're taboo, visions of sugarplums dance before her eyes. She can almost smell the aroma of freshly made dough on the breeze. Everywhere she turns, some delectable treat appears on a TV commercial, a roadside billboard, or in a conveniently placed end-of-the-row display at Wal-mart.

And those gummy bears she doesn't even like? Well, now they look pretty good sitting in her children's reward jar.

It's been my experience that intentionally denying yourself something will make it all the more desirable, which made me think back to the children of Israel and their forced diet once leaving Egypt to find the Promised Land.

Free of a life of slavery, one of the first things the Israelites did was start grumbling about being hungry. And God responded by sending manna, a white wafer with the sweetness of honey, a daily lesson "to teach [them] that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (Deut 8:3).

David called it the "bread of angels" (Ps. 78:25). But true to human nature, once their bellies were full, they remembered the rich foods of Egypt, and they craved them all the more, saying "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" (Num. 11:4-6).

So God sent them quail to eat with their manna until they were sick of both foods...and He killed some of the grumblers.

Imagine forty years of nothing but quail and manna. By the time the Israelites reached Canaan, most of the now-adults, and surely all of the children, probably couldn't remember any other food.

Then it just ended. Scripture records, "The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan" (Josh. 5:12).

No. More. Manna.

Did they miss it once it was gone? Did they taste it in their dreams? Did they continue to run out each day hoping a few flakes would be on the ground with the morning dew?

Did they crave it now that it was denied?

The New Testament picks up the theme of "bread from heaven" with Jesus who says, "'it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.'...Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst'" (John 6: 32-33, 35).

Jesus is the true manna from heaven.

But when I read reports of God moving in hearts around the world, I don't see a hunger in America for this bread of life, for the word of God made flesh. Instead, I see the most hunger for Jesus in those countries that deny their people religious freedom, those countries that persecute and kill men, women, and children for simply whispering the name of Jesus or for owning one page of the holy Scriptures.

There in the denial comes the craving.

It makes me wonder...would we Americans crave Jesus more if our worship of Him were forbidden? Or would we even miss Him at all?

Making a Bucket List

A few years ago, I watched the Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson hit movie The Bucket List. In it, two aging men with terminal illnesses seek to accomplish a laundry list of activities before they "kick the bucket."

If there is any benefit to knowing you're going to die sooner than later, it's that you have time to put your affairs in order. Sure, we're all supposed to live like we could not wake up tomorrow morning, but really? We don't...well, you might, but I know I don't.

One homework assignment of my most recent Bible study required me to read everything in the synoptic gospels that occurred in the last week of Jesus' life.

All I can say is "wow."

Yes, Jesus always lived like He was dying. But as His life and ministry drew to a close, He dialed up His teaching, providing us with a perfect example of how we should live, knowing that the clock is ticking down.

When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem the Sunday prior to Passover, He knew He would be dead and in the tomb before sundown on Friday evening, the start of the Sabbath. And so on Monday through Thursday, He taught in the temple with even more fervor than usual in an attempt to leave His disciples then and now with some "final lessons."

Knowing these were Jesus' last lessons before His death makes them that much more important, for a dying man will not waste words when He knows He has so few remaining.

Consider some of those lessons He gave us during that last week:

Jesus' Curse of the Fig Tree: "Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered" (Matt. 21:19).

One lesson learned: a disciple of Jesus who does not bear fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) is worthless.

The Parable of the Two Sons: Jesus said, "'What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?'" (Matt. 21:28-31).

One lesson learned: Jesus doesn't want mere lip service. He wants our faith in action.

The Greatest Commandment: "'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments'" (Matt. 22:36-40).

One lesson learned: Serving Jesus means denying myself and putting God and others first.

The Parable of the 10 Virgins: "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'...The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others [who had gone to buy more oil] also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you'" (Matt. 25:1-6, 10-12).

One lesson learned: Our hearts must be prepared, for when Jesus comes back for us, it will then be too late.

I could literally go on and on, as Jesus' teachings spanned chapter after chapter of the gospels. (If you have time before Easter, consider at least skimming through the last week of our Lord's life: Matt. 21-28; Mark 11-16; Luke 19:28-24; John 12:12-21. I know you will be overwhelmed and blessed.)

But consider: what if we each knew how many days were written for us? What if we knew how quickly the clock was counting down--twenty years, one year, one week?

If you sat down and wrote out your own bucket list, what would it include? Would it, like the movie, list activities like skydiving or visiting the pyramids? Getting a tattoo or driving a motorcycle on the Great Wall of China?

Would it focus on things that wouldn't matter once we left this earth?

Or would it list persons you need to share the gospel with? Family and friends you need to make peace with? Someone whom you just need to say out loud, "I love you and appreciate you."

A list like that is worth starting to complete today.

An Unusual Marriage Proposal

My marriage proposal was nothing to fill the pages of a romance novel and definitely not worthy of appearing on The Bachelor. There were no roses, no candles, no dressy clothes or special location. Instead, my then boyfriend of four years proposed in his apartment...after I had sat typing for over an hour as he dictated legal briefs to help him study.

And then? He gave no beautiful speech for me to memorize and play back for our children--just the simple words, "Will you marry me?" I've laughingly told him many times that he already knew I wouldn't need much convincing, so that's why his proposal was so unromantic.

Jewish marriage customs in the time of Christ are significantly different from what we experience in modern-day culture (and definitely not focused on romance). Yet, understanding the past gives deep insight into the meaning of the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples.

In The True Easter Story, Ray Vander Laan explains how in Jesus' day, the prospective bride and groom's fathers first negotiated a bride price. After an agreement was reached, the prospective groom offered a cup of wine to his bride-to-be as part of the engagement ceremony, symbolically asking her to accept "a new covenant." Interestingly, the bride could reject the cup and, thus, the offer of marriage. Yet, if she chose to drink from the cup, she accepted the marriage proposal.

Knowing this background, imagine you are in the upper room with Jesus. A traditional Passover meal lays before you like every Passover meal you've ever participated in since your childhood--the same number of cups to be consumed, the same selection of foods with all their symbolic meaning to Jewish history, the same memorized prayers and "order of ceremony."

And then in the middle of the ordinary, Vander Laan explains that Jesus inserts something new, something unexpected, yet something the disciples would have picked up on immediately--the verbiage of a marriage proposal: "In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you'" (Lk. 22:20, my Italics).

What must the disciples have thought upon hearing those familiar words--"new covenant"? Surely their heads jerked to attention as Jesus offered them a cup of...marriage?

Unusual? Yes. But oh so beautiful.

The image is an invitation for Jesus' followers--then and now--to enter a covenant with Him. Through those words, He sought to communicate His undying love and devotion for His followers, His "bride," a love that would lead Him to Calvary only mere hours later.

Before the end of the Passover feast, Jesus once again used an image from the marriage customs of the day. Jesus said, "'Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am'" (Jn. 14:1-3).

Vander Laan explains that according to custom, after the bride accepted the cup, the groom went back to his father's house for up to 12 months, spending that time adding rooms onto his father's house. Only when the groom's father thought the "new home" was sufficient did he give the son permission to go get his bride.

Do you see the beauty of promise in these marriage images? When we, as believers in Christ, take communion, He symbolically offers us an invitation to be part of His bride. To drink the cup is to accept His new covenant, written in the blood of the cross.

Once we have entered into the new covenant, as part of His beloved bride, you and I should awaken each day in anticipation, as a bride waits for her groom to return, claim her, and take her to a new home.

We must long for the day when God the Father looks to the Son and says, "Go get your bride."

*The True Easter Story, part of the That the World May Know video series, Zondervan 2000.

When Good Friends Go Bad

Abandoned. In the weeks immediately following my husband's losing his legal career, that's how he and I both felt. Four years' worth of friendships cultivated over basketball games, luncheons, cups of coffee, and even two vacations taken together--all were immediately dissolved by friends who, in our time of hardship, chose to completely cut off all contact with us.

At that time, my husband and I compared our life to the Bible character Job, checking off one thing after another we had in common, including the worthless friends who chose to believe Job was guilty of sin rather than showing compassion on him and believing in his innocence.

Since that time, I haven't spent much time reading that particular book of the Bible, as it serves as a painful reminder of still-too-fresh events. But, a few weeks ago, God drew me there again, focusing my attention on Job's friends.

To my surprise, I read that Job's friends didn't start out all that bad. After his children are killed and all his wealth is destroyed, they come to help:

"Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky. Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great" (Job 2:11-13).

Isn't this the type of friend we'd like to have? A friend who would cry out to heaven and weep with us? Who would tear her clothes and cover herself with dust in mourning with us? And who would just be there in silence with us for seven days and seven nights?

These three friends started out as true Christian friends should--showing love and suffering when a friend suffers.

But after seven days, perhaps they were tired of mourning and crying with a friend when they didn't see the situation changing for the better. Or perhaps they had spent too much time wondering why this happened to Job so that they became a little afraid themselves of the seeming "randomness" of it all and needed to find a reason for the destruction.

Whatever the case, they turned on Job. The first friend, Eliphaz, quietly implied Job wasn't innocent. His words of criticism were tinged with compassion, but they were critical nonetheless: "Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it" (Job 4:7-8).

Perhaps emboldened by the first friend's implications, the second friend, Bildad, more boldly and bluntly told Job he was a hypocrite and that his evil deeds had caused the wrath of God to fall on him: "If you are pure and upright,Surely now He would rouse Himself for you And restore your righteous estate" (Job 8:6).

Finally, the third friend spoke even more bluntly, this time showing a complete lack of compassion as he failed to put himself in Job's place before condemining him: "For you have said, 'My teaching is pure,And I am innocent in your eyes.' But would that God might speak,And open His lips against you, And show you the secrets of wisdom!" (Job 11:4-6).

Not surprisingly, Job expressed brokenness over their treatment of his despair. Their callous behavior is even more sad considering Job called them "My brothers" (6:14). Men he once thought were true friends, as close as brothers, now he referred to as judgmental liars, heartless, cruel, and "Sorry comforters" (16:2).

Three friends--who started out strong, as brothers who suffered together--ended so badly, with God even being angered at their actions (42:7).

So what happened?

Yes, part of the friends' problem was their lack of understanding about God; they truly believed destruction and bad fortune resulted from sin and couldn't fathom what was going on in the heavenlies with God allowing Satan to sift Job, to test him. I believe Christians still suffer from this false belief, even if it's at the far recesses of their minds, the thought, "She must have done something to deserve this."

But more interestingly, I also think the problem was the friends' attention span. Yes, you heard it right--I think they had a short attention span. It's a problem I see myself and other fellow Christians suffer from, too.

It seems people in general don't have much tolerance for long-term suffering, especially when they're not the ones doing the suffering. Honestly, it's depressing to be around someone in pain. And if people mourn longer over a loss than we think they should, we grow critical and want to tell them to just "get over it." I've even heard women make comments about others' situations like, "I know ____ was terrible, but you've got to get on with your life sometime."

Sadly, though, I see our attention spans working against us in another way that harms Christian friendships. Consider when a new name is added to a prayer list. We weep, we mourn, we visit, we bring meals, we pray...but week after week, month after month, the name sits before us on the list. And before long, we find ourselves thinking of that person less and less even though their need is still great.

We have all but forgotten them.

Being a friend in Christ is a difficult task, but it is important that we realize a good friend not only is there when the going gets tough, but continues to pray, cry, visit, and mourn together when it stays tough.