Possession and Joy

One of the most amazing passages, to me, is Isaiah chapter 61. Unpacking everything in this chapter would take too long for this blog so I'll only mention a couple of things. Throughout the first half of the book of Isaiah, there has been great judgment pronounced by the Lord to the nation of Israel. Historically speaking, “rebuilding the ancient ruins” was a great comfort to Israel since their city (nation) laid in ruin. Although the physically restoration comes in the form of Israel becoming a nation again, the spiritual promise to all of God’s people of becoming “oak(s) of righteousness” and “priest” and “ministers of our God” (v. 6) is of eternal value.

The imagery of restoration is that of wealth, possession, and affluence in verse 6b-7 also points to signs of not only prosperity in this present life but also for the one to come. If the pre-fall world and 2nd coming of Christ world show the same types of imagery of affluence for God’s people then it stands to reason that God wants to bless us in some capacity in order to catch glimpses of the eternal. This also further displays God's grace in kindness towards His people. Although sin ran rampant throughout the nation of Israel, it did not reign in God's deep desire to bless His people.

Another point in the opening chapter the Lord says, “For you will be like an oak whose leaf fades away or as a garden that has no water” (Is. 1:30) because of the unrighteousness and injustice practiced among them (1:21). But now we arrive to chapter 61, one of the most amazing passages of restoration and transformation from “an oak whose leaf fades away” to becoming “oaks of righteousness” (61:3). How is this possible? It’s possible because it is the Lord that does “the planting, . . . that He may be glorified.”

If you were to ask some of my close friends how to describe me they probably wouldn’t use the phrase, “oak of righteousness.” I’m fully aware of my shortcomings daily and, at times, it could get extremely frustrating. But remember, it’s the Lord’s work and He’s not done and He promises to finish and give us garments of “salvation” and “righteousness” (61:10) and the judgment due to us will be lifted. This of course is looking to the future work of Christ in the New Testament. But the fact that it is being mentioned here in the Old Testament, I find amazing.

In affirming that the Lord does the work in us in no way frees us from our personal responsibilities. In trusting divine sovereignty we do not neglect human responsibly. Oswalk puts it this way:

Most of us want God’s power for holy living while retaining a firm grip on the steering wheel of our lives. We would like to be “better” Christians but are unwilling to become bond-slaves. God’s awesome power to be loving when we are not loved, to be kind in the midst of cruelty, to be clean in the midst of filth, to be self-forgetful when everything around us says to “take care of yourself at all costs” is not available to those who would use it for their own ends.

Passages in the New Testament also confirm the tension between our acts and God’s power:

Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:13-14)

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? (James 2:14)

May our conduct and works reflect the power of God that works within us.

A 2nd Job Part II of II

For Part I Click Here

Interestingly, people still come up to me and give me their condolences regarding my mom. They also tell stories about how wonderful she was for the community. She was an icon in East Los Angeles. Yes, I miss her very much. My sister has a picture of her in the office. The first couple of weeks it was difficult to see the picture because it was a reminder that she’s no longer here. But it’s also a reminder that her kids are keeping up the family business and are working together to do they best they can without her. I think she would be proud.

An unexpected opportunity to share the gospel has also come from going back to the store. I still have friends in the old neighborhood that come by. It’s been great to be able to share the gospel the way my mom did her last few years. Speaking of the gospel, isn’t it at the heart of the gospel to love the unlovable? Isn’t that what the Lord did with us, . . . though we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The apostle Paul says, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise” (Romans 1:14 – NKJV). To be in debt means to owe someone something (e.g., mortgage, student loans, etc.), usually to a creditor. The Lord gave Paul grace so why, in this passage, would he call himself a “debtor” to Greeks and Barbarians? A clue in answering this question is in the first verse of chapter one where it says, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” (1:1 – NIV – emphasis added). Paul didn’t call himself nor did he set apart himself. It was God doing the work in Paul’s heart. Paul didn’t qualify for the grace of God nor did he do anything to be disqualified from the grace of God, “it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The beauty of receiving God’s grace is not that we owe God anything but that it wipes out what we did owe by virtue of our sins. So then, the “debt” we now owe is to offer this amazing grace to other unqualified people, to the Greeks and Barbarians and selfish customers of our day. Understanding this grace we have received will show in how we greet and interact with people. If we understand grace we won’t cut our eyes towards people for their differences or selfishness, feeling like we “qualified” for God’s grace while they didn’t.

Now, putting hands and feet to this wonderful concept of receiving God’s grace while working at a 7-11 store in the middle of East Los Angeles means I will show patience and compassion for everyone, knowing that I didn’t qualify for the grace of God. No matter how moronically a customer behaves, I need to extend grace because I am a “debtor” to them. It’s not because they gave me anything but because “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”

A 2nd Job Part I of II

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time you’ll know that I’m terrified at the prospect of parenthood. So my defense mechanism is to make fun of parenthood. But this isn’t about parenthood (sort of). One of the prospects that I find frightening is the loss of one income (the wife’s – who actually makes more than I do) and the addition of an expense (Junior Jr.). Yes, I just referred to my future child as “an expense.” And I will certainly remind him of this when I’m bailing him out of jail.

Instead of waiting to end up in the negative, I decided to get a second job and start saving for the bail bond now. The easiest way to a second job is to work for my sister, Vicky (only I can refer to her as “Vicky” and everyone else has to call her “Victoria.”), who took over our beloved mother’s 7-11 store. I don’t need to be trained because I worked there as a teenager. I also remember absolutely hating working there and having to convince my mom NOT to leave the store to me by threatening her that I would sell it for pennies on the dollar when she passed away.

Vicky was always better at managing the store anyway. I never had the stomach for all the nonsense that goes on with running a store. Actually, that was one of the reasons why I went to college, to get out of that hellhole. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated how the Lord provided everything for us through that 7-11 but I just hated working there. At this point, you might be asking, “If you hate working there so much, why are you going back?” Good question. The first reason I mentioned- it is the easiest job to get without any additional training involved. Secondly, I can spend more time with my sister. Although she’s consistently going 100 mph and worrying about 45 different things all at once, it’s still nice to see her. Finally, I felt that it’s been years since I last worked there and had hoped my maturity (if any) would help reign in my pure hatred for working there.

If you’re wondering why I hated it so much, it was because I was a lazy teenager who didn’t like to work at all. In addition to that mindset come along annoying and evil customers. Now, not all customers are annoying and evil. Actually the vast majority of customers are just average-hard-working-Americans-with-decency. But it’s those few that make my skin crawl. For example, there’s always that 70-year-old lady who holds up the line by wanting 57 different types of lottery scratchers because she has nothing better to do with her time. I love the fact they only come in when it’s really busy, too. Or, how about individuals who want to have their Lotto tickets checked but their tickets looks like they’ve been through the washer so the machine can’t read them? Here’s the thing that bothers me, if you truly believe that playing the Lotto might win you millions of dollars, wouldn’t you guard that ticket accordingly instead of allowing it to become so damaged the machine can’t even read it? Now if you don’t believe you’re going to win, then why play it at all? Most people who play the Lotto play it regularly. What they don’t realize is that if they simply invested that same money they would probably be wealthy.

Lotto sheets can print out 10 draws on one sheet. But there’s always THAT GUY who wants to have them printed out in single sheets. The dialogue usually goes like this:

Me: “Hello, how can I help you?”

Customer: “Yes, I would like a $5 Lotto ticket but instead of printing it on one sheet, saving time and paper, I would like you to print them on 5 single sheets thus holding up the line and annoying everyone around me.”

Me: “No problem, sir. Would you like a punch in the face with that?”

Not everything bad is Lotto related. Consider, for example, the customer who gets caught stealing and begins to become defensive and says, “I don’t know how that got into my pocket.” Or the homeless person laying in the parking lot that you kindly ask to leave and tells you to “Eff off, this is a free country!” Okay, technically the homeless dude isn’t a customer but still.

Or the person that insists that the coffee must be fresh, which apparently means made at the time of his arrival instead of 20 seconds ago. We definitely have different ideas of what “fresh” means.

I remember the time when we used to have to serve the Big Gulps and Slurpees behind the counter. Now the customers serve themselves. You would think pouring soda into a cup or turning a lever to fill a slurpee cup would be easy. Apparently for some customers it’s very difficult. The slurpee, when overworked, needs time to recharge and has a light indicating it. It’s a big flashing red light that says, “DO NOT USE IDIOT!!!” But do they see it? Of course not, so the slurpee isn’t quite as “slurpeey” as usual and they leave the half-filled cup there without saying a word. The station is always a mess even though we have trash dispensers all over that area. I haven’t even mentioned the hostile customers like gang members, beer runners, and robbers but that goes without saying. Those are some of the reasons why I hated working there. But since I’ve been back, it’s been great to see my sister and an opportunity to meet some of the new workers at the store my mom helped build.

For Part II Click Here.