This is not a lemonade stand

Jesus is quoted several times saying that he must be about his Father's business. Jesus wasted no time while in the flesh with anything less than being about his father's business. He went from one place to the next leaving miracles and changed lives in his wake. He was always doing what he heard the Father tell him to do. I find it interesting that Jesus never spent one moment trying to figure out why he didn't get what he prayed for. He had one recorded moment in the garden where he asked three times for some other way. And honestly, who wouldn't? He knew what lay ahead of him. And as the Bible tells the story it's not like God ever said "No." When his disciples all reached for their swords, Jesus told them to put them away because he knew he could summon an army of angels with a word. Drawing from that, one must conclude that God left it up to Jesus to decide whether the passion was going to play out or not. It was Jesus who decided to follow it through to the end. I said all that just to say this; Jesus did not have any doctrine that allowed for prayers going unanswered. It was not part of Jesus' thinking. To even conceive of a prayer NOT getting answered was way outside of Jesus' theology. He lived with the expectation that if he asked for it in faith, he would have what he asked for. That is soooo different from what I have heard from so many pulpits in my Christian life. I have sat under far too many pulpits that spent the majority of their time teaching me how to deal with disappointment. This is not a proper way of thinking for someone who intends to live by faith.

The point of our time down here is not to learn how to take our lumps. Don't get me wrong; there is a right way and a wrong way to handle disappointments. When life disappoints you, you'll keep your head up and maintain polite behavior if you're a man of faith. You won't give the enemy the satisfaction of seeing you whine and cry about it. You won't mar the reputation of Christ with spastic outbursts and childish tantrums. You'll stand there like a man or pick yourself up off the ground like a man spit the blood out of your mouth and praise God. But that should not be the ultimate goal of your faith. The ultimate goal of your faith should be learning how to harness this wonderful gift called faith to accomplish the work God has prepared in advance for you to do.

Christianity is NOT about learning to be a good loser. It's not about humbly scraping by on the left overs of this world while we wait for the rapture bus. Being a Christian brimming with abundant life does not mean losing with grace. It means winning! Christ is the victory that overcomes the world. Following him should not be an endless succession of losses that we take in stride. Following Christ should be going from one victory to the next. Each victory eclipsing the last in magnitude and amplitude. Learning how to make peace with all the disappointments in life is NOT what being a Christian is all about. This is why we have so few men who want to be a part of our churches. Manly men don't want to sit through some silly rituals while a meek house-pet of a man tells them how to handle life's bruises. Real men want to learn how to WIN! And the church has done a terrible job of that for so long. We don't want to hear how it makes us more like Christ in our Spirit when we don't get what we want. That doesn't even make sense but that's what we get so often. We are told that if life deals you lemons, make lemonade and here are some of my favorite recipes. Well, pardon me but I prefer coffee thank you very much.

Mark 1 relates a story of Jesus teaching in the synagogues. Mark points out that the people marveled at the fact that he spoke as one who has authority, not as a teacher of the law. Not as someone who studies the law but as one who exercises the law. That's the major difference between saved and unsaved isn't it?! Non believers, theologians and the like, speak in hypothetical contrivances about faith while believers actually exercise their faith and get their needs met. The major difference for me came when I was taught that I can operate in this life, here and now, as one with authority. My life will never be the same now that I know I can exercise authority over the things that invade my life. I can repel them or defeat them. I can summon them and I can sow them. I do not have to spend my days defending myself against the forces of this universe. I can actually exercise my authority on them. To what extent is a matter of time and maturity but that's completely beside the point. The point is, for years I was told how to deal with these forces as they inflicted themselves on me. Now I know the truth. Now I know that I can, that I have the authority even if I haven't developed the capability yet, I at least know that I have the right to DIRECT those forces. This is not making lemonade!

The point of this life is NOT to keep a stiff upper lip, behave yourself, and watch your language. We are saved for a reason. We are saved and given revelation and authority to actually accomplish something with our faith before our tour of duty is over. Don't think for one minute that you are fulfilling your duty to Christ just by attending church and "being a good person." In his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus took back the authority that Satan stole from Adam so he could restore us to a position of authority. Now that we have this authority, let's find a more noble use for it than just being the most optimistic person anyone's ever met.