HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

wino2 I’ll admit I was a fan of Dave Attell’s, “Insomniac,” on the Travel Channel. The world around us really is a different place after dark. But it has seemed that more and more here lately that these shadows of the dark, those life styles that we don’t want to talk about much less come in contact with, are being seen more and more and are beginning to be seen in the light. I mean really they are everywhere. Look around your city and if you say they aren’t there let me remind you of a saying my favorite preacher uses, “Lying can get you to Hell as quick as murder!” Remembering that Jesus came “to seek and to save what was lost,” I wonder who Jesus would hang out with if he walked the earth today.

Early in John’s gospel we see Jesus at a wedding in Cana. And, when the “adult beverages” so to speak, ran out Jesus made a run. First thing we have to keep in mind is that, yes, these beverages, this wine, had an intoxicating effect. We are told the master of the banquet said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink” (John 2:10). Surprisingly to many, one of the words used to get the phrase, “too much to drink” is the Greek word “methuskomai.” In all cases it has to do with getting drunk; under the influence of alcohol! Are there any drunks in your town?

Forget drinking alcohol for a minute and get a drink of water. Wait, what’s that at the well? It’s a lady. Of course she has no husband at the time, but had five earlier (John 4:17-18). And, the guy she now lives with isn’t even her husband! And, this is the lady Jesus asked for a drink of water. I am so glad we don’t have people like this around today for Jesus or us in the church to have to deal with! Hmmmmmmmmmmm

And, I don’t mind telling you a tax collector in Jesus day was no better than pimp. He sat back and made his money off the hard work of others. Just look at Zacchaeus. That little short man, he was probably a dwarf! He made a killing off the common everyday people. Maybe he was the Bernie Madoff of the New Testament. I mean when the tax collectors came to be baptized and asked what they should do, they were told, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to” (Luke 3:13). But yet, where did Jesus spend the afternoon? Looking up in the tree where that little short man was Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

Our world is a whole different world when the sun goes down. All the “undesirables” come out. But more and more these undesirables are surfacing now in the daylight. And yet, the church seems to want no part of a ministry with them. Jesus had no problem going to them and giving them salvation. It makes me wonder if there wasn’t a little insomniac in Jesus. I mean after all the same God that made me and you made the “Drunks and Losers and dwarfs with limps, the flos and hoes and one eyed pimps.”

Please notice the new link on the “What I read Page” for Matthew Paul Turner.

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep you; All Y’all!