The Inconsistent Biblios Bubble: The Leaky Roof of Character

 "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."-James 4:10. 

Do you deserve to have been Christ's cause for sacrifice? Bless You because I do not. I am the roof of an old house: when the rain comes, I find new leaks in my character all the time. But that is the entire point: to realize that we can not fix ourselves, something must be brought to the table that we can not bring. Thank God for His skills in carpentry-Jean-Marc

Blood in the Circle

"Look, he's bleeding!"

They mused as I stared at the small puddle now lying on the floor, looking as though it were splattered paint – yet it was a part me that been taken, and I vowed that it would never happen again.


It was 4th period and through our coach's intervention, our "class" contained every JV and Varsity football player in the high school usually for the purposes of weightlifting and running plays, but today we would learn a life lesson.


Led to the mens' wrestling room, we were ordered to form a circle of bodies, shoulder-to-shoulder as coach explained the premise of the day's activity:


"It's time to separate the Big Dogs from the puppies" he exhorted,


It was quite simple to grasp: two men in a circle were to do violence to one another at his signal.


"And no biting or punching", he added shortly before selecting combatants.


I was called into the circle with a good friend of mine – we were to battle. Poised to attack and awaiting the whistle, I made the mistake of having considered acting upon the one word farthest from my opponent's mind: mercy, and I would pay dearly for it.


Whistle blown, he immediately tackled me headfirst, dropping me on my spine.


(Now, I will not go into details of the subsequent violence: 1) it is not completely necessary for my point and 2) hazy recollection has shown me that I had apparently chosen to forget a large part of this. However, what I can speak on is how it ended.)


I had given him the upper hand – and he choked me with it. His arms were a vice around my neck and being that he was on my back, there was little option in the way of a counter. I would bleed and
spit up Deuteronomian life long before the whistle blew again.


That day, my friend taught me the most important of the world's lessons I had yet to internalize: "kill or be killed". The person I am is the product of moments like that.


When those in our circle: family, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ draw blood with their words and actions, it is hard to respond correctly or know how to respond at all.


"Dying men tell no lies"
Turn to the beginning of 1 Kings and you will find King David, at the end of his reign, the same David that showed God's mercy to a demon-possessed Saul and united Israel under his leadership.


He has become so advanced in years, he even turns down sex with a young beautiful woman; there are more pressing matters on his mind.


In Chapter 2, David instructs his son Solomon on two individuals he had apparently pardoned earlier during his reign: Shimei son of Gera for cursing and throwing stones and dirt at him and Joab son of Zeruiah, for unnecessary bloodshed.


Now originally, he had done what the best of us have tried to: give up their trespasses to God(2Sam 3:38-39; 2Sam 16:11-12)


But in 1 Kings 2, David tells his son to "act like a man" and have both executed. His advice leaves no room for misinterpretation:


"Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood."
-1Kings2:9


David may have had no lust for women on his deathbed, but he had bloodlust. These men had never been forgiven, they just unknowingly awaited judgment.


Is that not how it works in many of our lives: Judgment is not forgotten, just postponed? And meanwhile, we have resentment to occupy our time.




Resentment is the leather-bound book in which we, newly appointed judges, jot down the sins others commit against us.

Are you grinding your teeth into the smile you beam in the face of repeat offenses and hurtful speech ?
-Your resentment is building


Are you hating the lack of freedom you have around friends and family as you avoid the offender like a JW at your door on a Saturday morning?
-Classify this sin under "A" for "Annoyance"


Are they an infraction away from receiving "a piece of your mind"?
Better yet, "a piece of your peace?"
-Then you are ready to pen Volume II


If resentment feels justified and natural to you, it is because – it is, you have dealt with it all your life, though you probably know it better by it's other name: unforgiveness. And our unforgiveness screams for retribution and revenge.


But in our judges chambers, on the bottom row of the bookshelf of all that we know, underneath our latest edition of 'The Record of Wrongs', sits a dusty book called the 'Truth of Life' and it reads: In human relationships, true victims rarely exist, and even if they did at one point, they hardly ever stay that way for long.


Case in Point:
Shimei threw rocks at David for the very reason David had Joab killed, for being a man of bloodshed. And Joab felt retribution was deserved, after the king had allowed his brother's murderer to visit the palace like a common guest.


Were they justified?Yes.
Was he justified? Yes.
Though, it does not really matter.


Imagine a well-dressed and over-ambitious salesperson that talks your head off once you open your front door to them, he does not get the hint that you are uninterested in purchasing puppy pocket protectors today and refuses to take "no" for an answer...so you clobber him over the head with a baseball bat and consequently feel much better – you may be justified in your eyes and even in those of a jury of your peers, but in front of God Almighty – you stand guilty. 'Right' does not exist in the absence of God's standard.

Justification does not equal Justice.

If I left the story of my high school hurt as it is, you might get the idea I spent my years until graduation as a quarry of some sort – not exactly. To a certain degree I became angry and merciless, and took pride in whenever I could put these on display. But as mold spreads through a house, so was I not given the choice of which parts of my life it would infect.

Forgiveness and mercy are foreign languages we must learn, and virtues we must make the consistent choice to demonstrate because hate and unforgiveness are our native tongue and as natural to us a breathing. David knew this all too well.


After sinning himself, he made the following confession:


"Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
-Psalm 51:5


There is a part of me, the true me, that is sick with sin and loves my unforgiveness. When I ask it for kind words, all it suggests are curses, when I probe it for peaceful resolutions, it suggests I sharpen my sword.


So what hope is there for us? Thank God there is more to Psalm 51:


Verses 6-7:
"Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow."
Hyssop is a flower that was used in the Old Testament for purifying infected dwellings, but it was of no use – until mixed with blood.


"He shall purify the house with... blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn...and it will be clean."
-Leviticus 14:52-53
What I regularly pray and know in my heart, is that if my pains serve any real purpose in this life, it is for God's use in the purification of my sinful nature.


Jesus Christ, your high priest that surely understands the temptation of unforgiveness and revenge, is aware of your loss. He will renew you with the use of His hyssop, but only with HIS blood.


"Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
-Psalm 51:12-13


This is how Christ uses the "foolish" things of this world to confound the "wise":


He uses the "dead" things in it to give us "life"


He uses the "wounded" to "heal" others, and even "teach transgressors"


Any good response to evil requires wisdom outside of nature its self and it is His to give. By His Spirit he will give you words to speak, actions to live and prayers to pray in ANY and ALL situations, so that though others may want to, they will find no fault in you.


Therefore friends, look above and see that He began teaching us His lessons long before we learned any others and by His Grace, He will be faithful to complete them.


In Him,

Jean-Marc

My Soul, My Self

My mind is about to explode,

The Lord has just made a bit of Truth -- which is himself, clear to me.

Walking along in Queens I was, from the pharmacy when I had to cross the street at the same time as a rowdy group of preteens. With my music on and my destination "locked in", my mind, idle yet free-wheeling,  made it's subconscious and therefore unsolicited commentary:

"Look, at this boy here -- kind of heavy and very loud -- must be making up for his insecurities"
It continued: "And that girl here of this type and that boy there of that  race, interesting they are in deep conversation. What could they have in common?"


But like a driver recognizing he had dozed off, I jumped back in the driver's seat and steered my mind to more positive terrain:


"We're all special in God's sight, Jesus loves the little children, all the children...etc."


But in the midst of this, I then asked the most dangerous question conceived, the kind if asked by a preteen is usually followed with  a "well...um...it's like..." from their parents and other well meaning adults: "Why?"


"Why can I not understand everything about a person just by looking at them?"


"Why can I not classify people by their group, race or portrayed image?"


The answer: 'Because you can't judge a book by it's cover' and 'God is into variety', no offense,  worked for us as kids, just how milk once satisfied our hunger, but nowadays as a meal --it is weak. But thankfully the truth is much meatier:


 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb."(Jere 1:5)


The word in Hebrew, we translate as "knew" means more than just knowledge on a subject, if you turn back to Genesis you see it was written: "Adam knew Eve and she conceived". The word describes an intimate bond and relationship. Imagine a wife resting her head upon her husband's chest after a particularly difficult day at work as he simply holds her; and you have the picture: knowing something deeper than skin and body parts -- the soul.


God had an intimate relationship with our souls before we came to be. Before you were born, the Almighty had already mapped out the person whom you would be and he passionately loved that person.


I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said it best: "You are a soul, you have a body"


Your soul is you: your personality, what sets you ablaze and what frightens you, what makes you laugh so hard you can hardly speak--it is you, and God created it -- a divinely custom work.


Like an item covered by box and wrapping paper or a letter encased by an envelope are our souls in our bodies: You can not determine content by simply studying the container in which it is kept.


I am black but my soul has no color, I am Haitian but my soul comes from the same homeland as yours, I am '25 years of age', call me 'young', 'old'' or what have you but please know there is a part of me, the real me, that will never be buried or cease to be.


You were raised in a culture in which you learned to develop a taste for certain foods or relate to others in a specific way but it is as far from the entirety of who you are as ownership of a dollar bill is far from making you Warren Buffet


As one pastor has put: No one was given multiple choice before they were born. You simply woke up one day as you are and that was that. How can you put any stock in that? I am as helplessly 'black' as you are whatever you are. But God has a purpose for all He does.


Ponder this: The person of God was poured into a Jewish man whose people spoke Hebrew, we call him Jesus. But why that form?
Why these people?


It is worthy of noting, that what sets Hebrew apart from other languages is it's ability to be easily translated. Take the biblical books of poetry like our blessed Psalms and Proverbs. Had they been written by others, they would have relied on rhyme and meter, the placing of emphasis on syllables for expressing thoughts and ideas, which may sound lovely to the native but does not translate well for others. But the beautiful pattern of ideas we call Hebrew parallelism can be effectively rendered in ANY language!


And consider this: that Jesus came down and his disciples lived during the occupation of Jerusalem under the Roman Empire, when several different peoples and tribes were united by a common language: Greek, allowing for the Gospel to be spread to ALL in a single tongue!

God is more concerned about the accomplishment of His will than what it looks like to us and He is more concerned about the people we are becoming than what we look like to each other.

Is it no coincidence that God poured the souls of civil revolutionaries in bodies in which they could accomplish the most good, as a Martin Luther King or a Gandhi -- He raised up leaders in the midst of people who needed them.


John 8:
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Beloved, I sincerely believe the Lord is raising us up "for such a time as this" but we must freed from our preoccupation with sight.


What would you call a Christmas morning where all the members of a family traveled from all over the country to be at this one house, remaining seated, content in only staring at their wrapped gifts?  It may be  interesting for a time -- in anticipation --yet unless they "knew" the content of the gift boxes under the tree, I am sure we can agree the time spent would have been considered less than fulfilling, just as beauty being our main romantic motivator leaves the product achieved as less than fulfilling.


May we live for greater motivators. May we seek to "know" more of God. May we "know" more of each other. May we "know" more of ourselves.


Let us open some boxes.


In Him,

Jean-Marc