ELEGY FOR ELLICOTT (by Dr Dwight K. Nelson, August 22nd, 2012)

ELEGY FOR ELLICOTT

(by Dr Dwight K. Nelson, August 22nd, 2012)

They grew up together in this small Maryland town, those two 19-year-old college coeds. Summer was their favorite season. And what’s not to like about a sultry night high atop the railroad bridge in Ellicott City? Which is where Elizabeth and Rose were dangling their feet this Monday around midnight—their last night before heading back to college. The view beneath the stars above that sleepy neighborhood is why the bridge has been a favorite destination for generations.

The young women tweeted their friends. “Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign.” “Looking down on old ec.” Photos attached to their tweets “showed their view from the bridge and their bare feet, one with painted blue toenails, dangling over the edge.” Another tweet, “Levitating.”

Minutes later a CSX freight trained loaded to the brim with coal thundered down the tracks toward the bridge. Witnesses later described the squealing of brakes and the roar of a crash, as the train derailed, dumping its payload of coal onto the dark city street beneath the bridge. The two girls’ bodies were later found beneath the coal.  “Friends tweet before dying in Maryland train derailment” read the headline (South Bend Tribune 8-22-12).

Is the story a metaphor of life anymore? Beyond the bitter pain and loss of two young friends and two devastated families, that terrible tragedy in Ellicott City remains a tale of how quickly, how in an instant life as we know it can change. Irreparably change. Forever.

The ancient writer Paul in Holy Scripture scribbled a prophecy once of how the world—the one you and I live in and call “home”—will end. Read his prediction—even just once—and you, too, will sense how eerily similar to Ellicott City is this prophecy.... (Could this be 1 Thessalonians 5:2?)

Because it is dark. The night is rising. And the end is thundering through the midnight toward us. But you don’t have to be found tweeting the night away oblivious to the impending.... [W]e can face the rising night together. With Him.

ARE YOU WORTHY? LUKE 7:1-10. (By Mphatso Bello)

ARE YOU WORTHY? LUKE 7:1-10. (By Mphatso Bello)

(go to the bottom for the text on Luke 7:1-10 in KJV and ESV)

Dear Child of the living God.

Reading through Luke 7: 1-10 the Elders of the Jews recommended the centurion to Jesus that he was worth it for Jesus to heal his beloved sick servant because the centurion loved their nation and had built a synagogue for them. (Luke 7:4 & 5)

Verses 6 & 7 is a contrast in perception between the Elders of the Jews and the Roman centurion. The centurion is saying that he is not worthy that Jesus should come to his house and for him to go to meet Jesus and make the healing request on behalf of his servant.

The last part of verse 7 to verse 8, the centurion is expressing his faith in the power of Jesus to heal by simply saying a word. Hebrews 11:1 talks of faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The centurion is displaying his faith in action. He is believing that Jesus has authority to instruct a deadly disease to leave his servant alone.

The Roman centurion is challenging you and me regarding our faith in Jesus Christ. Do you believe that Jesus has authority to calm down the storm in your life and to overcome the difficult situation you are experiencing? The centurion believed that Jesus Christ had extraordinary authority and yet he considered himself unworthy to be close to Jesus physically although the Jews considered him worthy.

Are you worthy to receive the grace of God?

Are you worthy to be alive?

Are you worthy to have good health?

Are you worthy to be blessed in the way God has blessed you?

Are you worthy of Jesus to come down on earth and die for you?

I believe that Jesus healed the servant of the centurion because of the faith of the centurion not because he was worthy of it. Nothing we do can commend us to God as worthy people because our righteousness is as “filthy rags” before God (Isaiah 64:6).

What commends us to God is what God Himself has done for us in sending Jesus Christ to take our place and die for us so that we can have eternal life and be called sons and daughters of God. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

But this salvation does not give us a guarantee to continue sinning because Jesus told the adulterous woman to go and sin no more. So our faith and salvation will be reflected in our good works.

Are you therefore worthy? One thing I know is that you are special and unique to God. No one will ever take your place in God’s heart should you decide to miss heaven.

Be blessed.

Mphatso Bello.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LUKE 7:1-10 

KING JAMES VERSION

Luke 7:1 Now when [Jesus] had ended all His sayings in the audience of the people, He entered into Capernaum.

Luke 7:2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.

Luke 7:3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his servant.

Luke 7:4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him instantly, saying, “That he was worthy for whom He should do this:

Luke 7:5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.”

Luke 7:6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying unto him, “Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof:

Luke 7:7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.

Luke 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, ‘Go,’ and he goeth; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he cometh; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he doeth it.”

Luke 7:9 When Jesus heard these things, He marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed Him, “I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

Luke 7:10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION

Luke 7:1  After [Jesus] had finished all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.

Luke 7:2  Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

Luke 7:3  When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to Him elders of the Jews, asking Him to come and heal his servant.

Luke 7:4  And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have You do this for him,

Luke 7:5  for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

Luke 7:6  And Jesus went with them. When He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Luke 7:7  Therefore I did not presume to come to You. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.

Luke 7:8  For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

Luke 7:9  When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed Him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Luke 7:10  And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

THEY ARE STEALING OUR DREAM... NO! RATHER, OUR FREEDOM TO HOPE!!

THEY ARE STEALING OUR DREAM... NO! RATHER, OUR FREEDOM TO HOPE!!

Notting Hill is the film? (I thought I heard Nottingham! Dumb me!). I am not into films and fantasy. But this caught my attention. The BBC reporter (on 28^th  June  2012) was in the real place featured in the film, and said it well: the real place, Notting Hill, has an opulence of shops and plush residential houses, and yet this has not always been so. Notting Hill used to be a lowly area, but has greatly changed over time to affluence.

Then one thing struck me like a lightning bolt: THE PLOT OF THE FILM IS FICTIONAL, BUT THE PLACE IS REAL!

It seems makers of films and soap opera series force us to dream and imagine and fantasise the impossible!! I am sure not the only kid who (back then) mimicked Superman, Batman, Casper the friendly ghost. Heroes and ghosts? Oh, oh! Today, kids are glued to Harry Potter’s magic and the supernatural feats he does. Unfortunately, the older we get, the more daring they play on our minds: driving us to mimic more and more of the paranormal, immoral, or the vulgar!

Probably we don't really believe in all that we watch, but, to an extent, it influences our perspective and even reactions to real-life situations somehow! Millions of us are captivated watching series after series of improbable fiction which mostly never even happened at all. The silver screen invokes imaginations for the moment, and perhaps entertains … although at times, haplessly to say the least, with quite a dose of poisonous erosion of moral and logical values.

But one thing is inevitably noticeable in all this endless craze of peeking at the screen: Why is it that we have this longing to dream and be carried away by fantasy? Could it be that it was placed there as a fertile ground for FAITH to germinate in us? An intriguing definition of faith is “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith invites us to believe in so many things that popular opinion has begun to throw into the trash can. Let’s look at a few examples.

CREATION: that God created the earth. Now, no one alive was there to give evidence that the creation marvel we call Mother Nature came from an enigmatic Divine Source. Although others are happy to suggest that the source of the wonders of creation is "nothing" or a Big Bang, this suggestion still falls aeons short of explaining how “no thing” could "exist" in the first place, or be stirred up to make millions of “some things”…. Actually, if forces existed back then, they should have come from some somewhere or Someone should have made them and stirred them up! In the end, we inevitably end up with Someone who needs no further explanation! The Christian inevitably calls that Someone “GOD”! Whilst science fumbles for a plausible cause of the Big Bang, the Christian lays back without scratching the head! Faith at work!

JESUS: Since we were not there in the beginning, faith claims that Someone who was came to live among us! Although it needs faith and divine imagination to embrace this, it is a credible claim, backed by history, that a Man called Jesus Christ lived among us and did the most amazing impossibilities that shook the culture of HIS day: HIS deeds were beyond the ordinary and the mortal - opening blind eyes, curing leprosy, raising the dead, and multiplying food before people’s very eyes! When the spiritual leaders back then proved these were no reversible magician’s pranks, they were fearful that this Carpenter-made-itinerant Preacher would snatch the red carpet from off their feet, and plotted HIS death! They didn’t want to lose their authority as He was very popular among the people! Then HE surprised them: HE openly made it known that HE would die and resurrect after Three Days! I mean, having already done the impossible, they were disturbed, and planned to make sure that HE would not elude their death trap! Thank God the Jews back then were under occupied rule of the Romans Empire, and secular history collaborates these Biblical episodes. When they successfully convinced the Roman ruler of the day in nailing HIM to a cross where HE died, instead of throwing a party, they couldn’t sleep and even broke their Sabbath to place Roman guards and a seal at HIS tomb, all to be sure HIS prophecy that HE would come back to life does not happen by sleight of hand! Talk of a bothered conscious!

THE RESURRECTION: But Jesus indeed resurrected! The impossible happened! The spiritual leaders couldn’t adequately disclaimed it! A bunch of 12 men, close followers of this man Jesus, ring-led a massive mission to proclaim this Man was alive, and that HIS death was the divine solution to the sin problem that crept up on us way back  in the beginning of creation! And they were willing to even die for it! Many have believed since, and are convinced that the same God who created us was willing to save us from ourselves!

THE PROMISE: As if that’s not enough, prior to HIS death, Jesus had promised that HE will go away and prepare a place for us and would come back to take us there (John 14:1-3)! After the resurrection, angels confirmed that HE would indeed come back someday in the same way the followers had seen HIM go (Acts 1:11). Impossible? I am persuaded to think it is very possible!

TODAY: Here we are with more than a palpable urge to believe that this Jesus is more than a piece of fiction! The moral purity that HE proposes that we live is even more intriguing! Well, maybe Hollywood has stolen a bit of our imaginative prowess: they want us to believe in the “impossible impossible” (because their impossible is indeed impossible)! I suggest that everyone ought to consider the “impossible possible” in Jesus Christ, because with HIM, what seems impossible can be possible!!

THE FUTURE: If Notting Hill was once a slum, and now it's plush and upmarket – a transformation made by mere mortal man, why can't I believe that my God has mansions in preparing for me? Isn’t this the impossibility-to-possibility maker God who already proved HIS words to be true? I will believe in HIM! I will! I will! HE is coming back for me! It’s not just a dream to me or a movie thing. It is HOPE! The plot is REAL, and so is the PLACE! And that gives me hope for tomorrow!

SO COME, LORD JESUS! MARANATHA!