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When the Pharmacist Is Sick

11/28/2016

Walking into my local pharmacy this past weekend, I saw a note on the door that read, “Pharmacy is closed today due to illness.” Everyone – including the pharmacist – gets sick. I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony, however.

The note also got me thinking about who I am as a minister. Just as pharmacists sometimes get sick, I have my ups and downs spiritually. But if I am spiritually unhealthy, how can I serve those who seek my aid? The Apostle Paul told a young minister named Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).

Scripture shows that this principle applies to all Christians. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

Is your spiritual health in such a place today that others can come to you for encouragement, instruction, and restoration? Do you know of Christians to whom you can turn for such healing?

It has often been said that the church is to be a hospital for sinners and not a hotel for saints. If we are to be such a hospital, then we need to make sure that we are not carrying and spreading the very illnesses we need to be treating. This does not mean that we put on the pretense of hypocrisy. It does mean that we pursue spiritual health for both ourselves and those we treat. A pharmacy can’t dispense medicine when the pharmacist is sick, and the church can’t dispense spiritual healing when plagued by sin.

Jesus once asked a lame man, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6). Jesus alone could make that man walk, and Jesus alone can cure us of sin. May we be blessed in seeking the spiritual healing that only He can provide, and may we bless others in pointing them to the Great Physician.

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The Others

11/15/2016

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How do you feel about the “others?”

We all have others. They’re the people who seem different from us. They may include people who don’t look like you, speak your language, share your background, think like you, vote like you, or worship like you. They can be people who have more or less education, money, health, beauty, fame, or influence. They can live in a different country, a different state, a different neighborhood, a different street, or just a different kind of house.

Jesus once asked, “And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?” (Matthew 5:47). We tend to gravitate towards those most like us while ignoring the others. And in so doing, we are really no different from the others.

Jesus once accepted an invitation to dine at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. Even though Jesus was a fellow Jew committed to God and Scripture, Pharisees viewed him as an “other.” The Pharisees had lots of “others.” That’s the problem with otherness. We can always find a new way to classify and divide fellow human beings in such a way that we demonize or marginalize them as something “other.”

Simon’s dinner party ended up being crashed by another kind of “other.” In Simon’s eyes, she was nothing more than a sinner, the worst kind of other. He seethed as this woman of ill-repute showered the Lord with her tears and oil. All Simon could think was “How could a man – especially a supposed prophet – having anything to do with a woman like her?”

Jesus could have viewed both Simon and the woman as others. Instead he graciously accepted the Pharisee’s invitation to dinner, and he graciously accepted the kindness extended by the woman. They both were sinners in need of grace. Only one recognized and received that need.

Jesus taught us both in his words and actions that we are to love others as we love ourselves. The willingness to love others is to be the ultimate distinguishing mark of Christians. Too often, though, we turn ourselves into an isolated tribe while leaving the others to fend for themselves. Even worse, we may contribute to their otherness by ignoring or ostracizing them.

There will always be others. The test for us is how do we view them, speak of them, and above all, serve them. Does it mean we always agree with them? Certainly not. Does it mean that they always respond to us with gratitude? They ended up killing Jesus. And in his death, Jesus continued to love and serve others, including you and me.

The world will always look down upon others. If you respond in kind, you become just like the world. You have been called out of this world to love others in a way the world has never seen. When you do, others will be blessed. And so will you.

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Eat, Drink & Be Merry

11/7/2016

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   The phrase “Eat, drink and be merry” is often associated with a mind that only thinks on worldly things and avoids considering the eternal. After all, they were the last words of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:19. He was a man who was prepared for the good life of an early retirement. The only problem was that he hadn’t prepared for a far more important future. God tells him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Tragically, too many souls have followed the Rich Fool and his “eat, drink and be merry” philosophy.

But the Bible also teaches that more of us need to live with an “eat, drink and be merry” mindset. No, we don’t need to be think like the Rich Fool. Instead we need to adopt the thinking of Ecclesiastes 8:15. There Solomon declared, “So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.”

In the context of Ecclesiastes, Solomon was not advocating for a life of recklessness or self-indulgence. Instead he was promoting the contented life. At the beginning of Ecclesiastes, Solomon acknowledges that he is a man who had everything this world could offer. He was the Old Testament’s version of the Rich Fool — eating, drinking, and living by any pleasure he desired. But it all led him to conclude that such a life is vanity and grabbing at the wind. As the book unfolds, Solomon provides the keys that unlock a life of meaning. Among them is a person’s ability to be content with what he can control. Namely, he can work to provide enough food and drink for himself (and his family), and he can find contentment in leading such a simple, productive life.

     It is the same attitude found in Jesus’ prayer “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is also the basis of Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 6:8 - “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”

     The difference between the wise and foolish life is how we approach “eat, drink and be merry.” Too often we fail to find the contentment in Solomon’s “eat, drink and be merry” because we are too busy pursuing the Rich Fool’s “eat, drink, and be merry.” Choose wisely, be blessed, and be a blessing.

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Honor

11/2/2016

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Among the Ten Commandments, the Fifth Commandment is the first that addresses mankind’s dealings with one another. Commandments 6-10 tell us what NOT TO DO – murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, and covet.

But the Fifth Commandment stands alone in telling us what TO DO. Specifically, it says to honor your father and mother. And that’s not all it says. Unlike the other nine commandments, the fifth one comes with an addendum. The Apostle Paul calls it a promise in Ephesians 6:3. The promise says, “that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

I’m confident that you want things to go well in this land. In less than a week, the United States will select a new slate of leaders. It’s no secret that this has been the ugliest and least inspiring election in many of our lifetimes. Honor has often been missing in both the conduct of candidates and in the conversations among citizens.

In teaching us to honor our parents, the Fifth Commandment laid a foundation for all human relationships. After all, we first learn how humans engage with one another in our families. As we see our parents honor each other (1 Peter 3:1-7), and as we show honor to them, we learn how to fulfill a more challenging command – “Honor all people” (1 Peter 2:17).

Can we honor all people in the United States today? Can we honor people who look, think, talk, live, vote, and believe differently than us? You may be thinking, “But not all people act honorably.” That is true. It still doesn’t change the “all people” of 1 Peter 2:17. You can honor those who aren’t honor-worthy by treating them not as they are, but as they can be.

It is easy to live up to low expectations. But when we show honor to all, we set a higher standard for one another, a standard that believes we all are made in the image of God. Isn’t that how He has dealt with you and me? He honored us by being so humble to come to earth, be identified with us, and put up with all the inconveniences of us less-than-honorable types. Jesus did not have to honor anyone. Instead he chose to honor everyone.

Theories abound as to what’s wrong or broken in America. Maybe it’s as simple as we don’t honor one another like we should. For our political leaders (even the ones you don’t like or vote for), military men & women, law enforcement officers, school teachers, and more . . . a return to showing honor could go a long way. But we will never honor those distant from us if we fail to honor those closest to us. From the way little children speak to mommy and daddy to the regard teens hold their parents to the care adult children give their aging fathers and mothers, the honor one generation shows another serves as the building block for a healthy society.

Of all the commands that God could have laid as the foundation for Israel’s human relationships, He selected “honor your father and mother.”

Before we debate government policies and political candidates, maybe we should all adopt a policy to honor one another. Will it solve all of our nation’s woes? Probably not. But it sure looks like a better approach than what we see playing out in society today.

Many are calling for us to pray for our nation, and we should certainly pray. But if we don’t honor one another – starting at home – then prayer is futile (see 1 Peter 3:7).

Honor your spouse. Honor your neighbor. Honor your enemy. Honor the president. Honor all people. “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land” (Deuteronomy 5:16). Be blessed and be a blessing.

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When the Pharmacist Is Sick

The Others

Eat, Drink & Be Merry

Honor

Blaine Kelly

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