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Judas by Max Lucado

-Judas-

by Max Lucado


If God has called you to be a Martha, then serve! Remind the rest of us that there is evangelism in feeding the poor and there is worship in nursing the sick.
If God has called you to be a Mary, then worship! Remind the rest of us that we don't have to be busy to be holy. Urge us with your example to put down our clipboards and megaphones and be quiet in worship.

If God has called you to be a Lazarus, then testify. Remind the rest of us that we, too, have a story to tell. We, too, have neighbors who are lost. We, too, have died and been resurrected.

Each of us has our place at the table.

Except one. There was one at Martha's house who didn't find his place. Though he had been near Jesus longer than any of the others, he was furthest in his faith. His name was Judas. He was a thief. When Mary poured the perfume he feigned spirituality. "The perfume could have been sold and given to the poor," he said. But Jesus knew Judas's heart, and Jesus defended Mary's worship. Years later, John, too, knew Judas's heart, and John explained that Judas was a thief (John 12:6). And all these years he had been dipping his hand in the treasury. The reason he wanted the perfume to be sold and the money put in the treasury was so that he could get his hands on it.

What a sad ending to a beautiful story. But what an appropriate ending. For in every church there are those like Martha who take time to serve. There are those like Mary who take time to worship. There are those like Lazarus who take time to testify.
And there are those like Judas who take, take, take, and never give in return. Are you a Judas? I ask the question carefully, yet honestly. Are you near Christ but far from his heart? Are you at the dinner with a sour soul? Are you always criticizing the gifts of others yet seldom, if ever, giving your own? Are you benefiting from the church while never giving to it? Do others give sacrificially while you give miserly? Are you a Judas?

Do you take, take, take, and never give? If so, you are the Judas in this story.

If you are a Martha, be strengthened. God sees your service.
If you are a Mary, be encouraged. God receives your worship.
If you are a Lazarus, be strong. God honors your conviction.
But if you are a Judas, be warned. God sees your selfishness.
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From "Cast of Characters" -© (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008) Max Lucado

God's Yellow Pages

God's Yellow Pages

Nothing Just Happens by: T.D. Jakes

Nothing
Just Happens

T.D.
Jakes

"Three
women - Naomi, who is the older woman, and Ruth, who was her
daughter-in-law, and Orpah, who was her other daughter-in-law. Three
women who's commonality was pain. Pain is a strange company keeper.
It brings the oddest people together. There is a secret fraternity
that exists amongst those who have been in pain that is
mind-boggling. It transcends the color of your skin. It transcends
your background. When you have been through certain things, you feel
for other people who have been through those things, because you
relate to them. I personally don't like to have a whole lot to do
with people who have not been through pain. It's nothing against
them, I'm not jealous of them, I just can't relate to them. I can't
relate to them and I am sure that they will not be able to relate to
me. The parts of me that I need to have known, that I need to have
touched, that I need to have fellowship, are tied up not in the
successes of my life, but in the struggles of my life. For God has
done more through my struggles. He's done more through my struggles
then he's ever done through my successes. And if you look carefully
at my successes, my successes are made out of the ingredients of my
struggles. And you can never know my successes until you understand
my struggles, because my struggles are the pathway that led me into
my success. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

And
so if you are going to have fellowship with somebody, you have to
choose your friends and make sure that they have had something to die
in their life. If you've never had anything to die in your life, you
have the kind of optimism that is annoying. If you've never had
anything to go wrong in your life, I don't like to hear you preach,
it aggravates me, it gets on my nerves because your preaching has not
been balanced by failure. If you've never had anything to die in your
life don't counsel me, because you really don't understand me because
you don't know why I am like I am until you've been where I've been.
If you've never had anything to die in your life don't sit there and
tell me be a man, take it, don't cry. You don't know what I'm taking,
you don't know what I'm enduring, you don't understand. Just because
you read some books and took a psych class doesn't mean that you are
ready to deal with the issues of my life. There is something about
going through death and loss and pain and misfortune and adversity.
There is something about going through things that don't seem fair to
you. That once you go through them you need to make sense of the
madness in your life since you can't change what happened and you
can't alter what you've been through, at least you need to be able to
think that there's some greater good that's going to come out of it.

It's
what they call bringing closure. To bring closure to it; to justify
that I didn't go through this kind of pain for nothing. I need to be
able to feel like something good is going to come out of this. If I
can't do that then I feel like I'm a victim. I feel like I've been
victimized and I forever feel sorry for myself and I'm not free to go
on with my life, and I'm not safe to remarry again, and I'm not safe
to get another job again, and I'm not safe in another church again,
because I have unresolved issues out of my past; and I'm not ready to
go forward with my life because I'm still tied up with where I came
from. I need to know if I'm going to continue to worship God, I need
to know that some demon didn't get loose in my life and wreck my
life. It's not a mistake, it's not an accident, God didn't fall
asleep on the job and the devil came in and wrecked the car. No, God
never sleeps and he never slumbers. He's in complete control and he
knows where you are, and he knows how old you are, and he knows how
much time you spent, and he knows what happened to you, and he knows
who walked out and left you, and he knows who betrayed you, and he
knows who molested you, and he knows who raped you, and he knows who
rejected you, and he knows where you are in life, and he knows about
your bills, and he knows about your degree, and he knows you dropped
out of school, and he knows about what you didn't get, and he knows
about the health of your child, and he knows about the condition of
your neighborhood. Understand that and tell yourself nothing just
happens.

And
so Orpah walks away. She walks away. I might have to turn this into a
series because I can't get out of this. Orpah walks away, and she
cries and she goes back. There are people who can walk away from you.
And hear me when I tell you this - when people can walk away from
you: let them walk. When people can walk away from you: let them
walk. I can sit down now; I've preached. I can sit down. I don't need
to make an altar call or nothing. I don't have to hoop, I don't have
to make you shout, I have just preached right now. When people can
walk away from you: let them walk. I don't want you to try to talk
another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring
about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you. I mean hang up
the phone. When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your
destiny is never tied to anybody that left. The bible said that, they
came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not of
us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with
us. [1Jo 2:19]

People
leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not
joined to you, you can get super glue and you can't make them stay.
Let them go. And it doesn't mean that Orpah was a bad person it just
means that Orpah's part in the story is over. And you've got to know
when people's part in your story is over so that you don't' keep
trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when it's dead, David.
When your boy is dead, wash your face and have another baby. You've
got to know when it's over. Let me tell you something. I've got the
gift of goodbye. I mean I've got the gift of goodbye. It's the tenth
spiritual gift, I believe in goodbye. It's not that I'm hateful, it's
that I'm faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have he'll
give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it. Stop
begging people to stay. Let them go!! Ruth, on the other hand, coming
to the crossroads, she looks at Orpah who left. Ruth turns to Naomi
and says, as the Lord liveth I shall not leave thee. She makes a
statement to this woman that sounds somewhere in between poetry,
intimacy and borders on lesbianism.

People
don't even know how to explain what Ruth said to Naomi. It makes them
uncomfortable, they are afraid to talk about it, they don't want to
teach on it. The same thing with David and Jonathan. Whenever same
sex relationships get too close people don't even know what to say
because people are so carnal they think the only thing that can tie
you to somebody is flesh to flesh. Understand that Naomi was an older
woman. She was old enough to be Ruth's mama. She's not attracted to
Naomi's flesh. Some kind of way Naomi's spirit has gotten in her
spirit. There is something that happens to you occasionally where you
can meet somebody and you sense, you sense, you sense that your
destiny… oh God, oh God… your destiny is tied to that
person. Do you understand? Do you understand what's happening to us?
Do you understand that we are spending our lives together? Has it
ever crossed your mind that we are spending our lives together? That
we will die after this, and that we have been joined together and we
are spending our life together? Have you ever realized you can spend
your life anywhere with anybody doing anything, but something happens
inside of you where you sense that your destiny is tied to a ministry
or to a vision and you decide to spend your life…

People
keep talking about spending their money. That ain't nothing. I can
spend my money and live in Chicago. But when I spend my life with
you, that's all I have. I don't think that hits you. We are spending
our lives together. You will not be able to write your story and
leave me out. We are spending our lives together. There is no greater
bond possible. Occasionally in scriptures in the whole bible you see
it happening with people who are not even blood related spend their
lives together in the most intimate connection possible. And
theologians and scholars and preachers stumble about it because they
don't know how to talk about it because they don't understand the
power being joined together. How can we explain what made Elisha
leave his natural mother and father and run after Elijah to wait on
him? To clean his clothes, to pour water on his hair, to set up his
tent, but some kind of way Elisha sensed that his destiny was tied to
Elijah. How can we explain Timothy, who walks away from everything
that he owns to hang out at the outside window of a jail cell as an
old man prepares to be beheaded? He peeks in the window handing him
books and blankets ministering to him. The young man understood, I'll
never be who I was meant to be without you in my life. Do you hear
what I'm saying?

There
is something, there is something about the way you talk it feeds me.
It's something about the way you speak that changes me. There is
something about your spirit that motivates me and I'll never be
completed without you and I didn't meet you by accident. I didn't
stumble up and meet you. This didn't just happen. There is a reason
that I'm in this place. I'm so sick of talking to people who think
that everything just happens. I guess I'll go to church. I guess I'll
get saved. I guess I'll move to Chicago. I guess I'll move to Dallas.
That's not how it is. The steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord. Your steps were ordered. If you hadn't got the phone call that
you got when you got like you got it, you wouldn't even be here right
now. If you hadn't made the turn that you made yesterday you wouldn't
experience what you are experiencing today. God has been behind the
curtain like a puppet master pulling strings in your life. It's not
that you're smart, it's not that you're great; it's not that you're
holy; it's not that you're perfect; it's not that you're good; but
God winded you up; pointed you in the right direction; released you
into your destiny; and you are here and you can't get away. Slap
somebody and tell them nothing just happens. Can I talk to you a few
more minutes?

This
means, this means, this means that I'm up under the banner of his
will. I'm up under the banner of his will. Even in the midst of
death, I'm up under the banner of his will. Even in the midst of
pain, I'm up under the banner of his will. Even in the midst of
separation and disappointment I'm up under the banner of his will.
Can I take you to the next level? Jonah was sent to Nineveh, went to
Tarsus, headed for Tarsus not obeying God, got thrown off the boat
into the belly of the fish, swallowed up for three days. Even though
God told him to go to Nineveh, and he didn't go, he was still in the
will. I'm not sure you can handle this. He went the wrong way and he
was still in the will. They threw him off the boat he was still in
the will. I'll prove to you he was in the will. It just happened to
be a big fish. See it just happened to be a big fish swimming beside
the big boat so that when men dumped him over, the fish just happened
to… this is too strong. You can't take this. The fish carried
him down to the bottom of the mountains with seaweed wrapped around
its neck. He's thousands of feet below sea level and God sustained
him. Sustained him not one day, not two days, not four days, but
three days. Nothing just happens.

On
the third day… on the third day the backslidden, rebellious,
reprobate, disconnected, disjointed preacher comes up out of the
water, and thousands of years later Christ says even as Jonah was in
the belly of the fish three days so shall the son of man be in the
grave. He had to get up when he got up, and he had to go down when he
went down because nothing just happens. Oh God. Your mistakes were in
his will. Your trouble was in his will. Your pain was in his will. I
don't care what you went through. David said if I make my bed in
hell, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and ascend
unto the uttermost parts of the earth God is still there. He was with
you in the middle of your trouble. He was with you in the middle of
your pain. That's why Paul said, I've learned whatever state I'm in,
therewith to be content. I know how to be rich. I know how to be
poor. I know how to be free. I know how to be bound. You ought to
shout. I don't care where you are because nothing just happens! And
no devil in hell has ever been able to abort the purpose of God not
once. And yes, God gave you a human will, and you are a free moral
agent; but if you think that your human will is strong enough to
change his divine will you are tripping. You are out of your mind.
God is God.

The
reason we worship him as God is because he is the CEO. He is in
charge. He runs the universe. And when God gets ready to make you,
and when God gets ready to break you, and when God gets ready to take
you, he has never been without the power to make you yield to his
will. He's never, not one moment or time, not been able to
orchestrate your affairs and anointing in your life. Think about the
most damnable thing that ever happened and shout 'nothing'! Think
about the most embarrassing thing that ever happened in your life and
shout 'nothing'! Think about the most impoverished, financially
depleting thing that ever happened in your life and shout 'nothing'!
Think about the worse scandal that you ever went through in your life
and shout 'nothing'! Think about people who loved you and walked out
and left you and shout 'nothing'! Think about betrayal on the highest
level of your life and shout 'nothing'! Think about the struggle
going on on your job right now and shout 'nothing'! Think about the
attitude of your kinfolks and your family members and shout
'nothing'! Think about how your boss is treating you on your job and
shout 'nothing'! Think about that disagreement between you and your
children and shout 'nothing'! Think about your past life of sin, your
whoremongering, your inappropriateness, your attitude, your
dysfunction and shout 'nothing'! Shout 'nothing'!

Let
the devil hear you say nothing. That devil will think he won if you
don't shout nothing. The devil will think he's in charge if you don't
shout nothing. He'll think he's going to win but you've got to shout
'Nothing'!"