Triple C News - July 16, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Praise the Lord! 

Today’s gonna be awesome!

Be careful to not get too much sun, tho! …

And have a wonderful day!

Whoa!

That’s pretty bossy.

I just told you to do three things without even thinking about it.

(“…praise the Lord…be careful…have a wonderful day”…)

Sorry, everyone.

These are kind of bossy times.

If you listen closely, people are always telling you what to do.

Like when we watch the news that we like the best, when some of the weather people come on (btw, Todd Howell doesn’t do this!) often they’ll use the definite article “the” when they shift from being meteorological to being peremptorical (ie, bossy)

“You’re gonna need the gloves today, the umbrella, and you’re gonna want to go for the run early before it gets too hot…Makes sure you use the sunscreen…”

“…the sunscreen”?

Wow! That’s a lot of unsolicited advice, my friend!

“You’ve gone from pronosticatin’ to meddlin’!”

And, good heavens! This last year, loads of people would tell anyone who’d listen (and even those who wouldn’t!) what they should or shouldn’t do about so many things! 

Folks you never met would tell you where you should put on your mask…

And others who disagreed would tell you where you could put it!

I don’t really mind when people tell me what to do. I don’t often know and welcome guidance.

But my quest is to learn better and deeper everything that Jesus told us to do and give my heart to leaning into that!

The Gospels say that He’s our “Teacher” 47 times! We listen and learn…

He’s called our “Master” 49 times in the Gospel of Matthew alone! It’s His job to tell us what to do…

In 1 Timothy 6, He’s even called our “Potentate”! When you have someone in your life called your Potentate, ain’t it your job to just do what they say?

So, one time I looked through the Gospels and wrote down every command or order Jesus gave to anyone, including the ones that are also for all of us.

If He told someone to “rise, take up your mat, and go home” I counted that as three orders. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, there are 186 commands Jesus gave to people.

In The Gospel of Mark, there are 101.

Luke recorded 167.

John wrote down 83.

“Wow! That’s a lot to orders!”

Well, it helps to remember that many aren’t specifically for us. 

Once Jesus told a young dead person, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

So that’s obviously not for me. In fact, I’ve been kinda puny for a week or so but I’m feeling much better today!

(But you may need to quote that Scripture at your sleepy kids when school gets back in!)

Some commands He didn’t intend for folks to actually do. He told a woman once to get her husband, knowing she was “shacking up and didn’t officially have one. 

And it didn’t hurt her feelings; it really helped her healing!

But the sweetest thing about our Beloved Master and Potentate is that His orders are mostly just…kind! 

For example, He “ordered” some to…“Go in peace!”

He “commanded others (all of us!) to…”Believe the Good News!”

Commands like…

“Take courage!

“Don’t be afraid!”

“Believe in Me!”

“Abide in Me!”

were His directives!

Listen to this one…

“Come to Me all you who are weary and weighed down and I will give you rest!”

What a command! 

What a sweet Master!

He can boss me all day, every day!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

(Oops! Sorry! Didn’t mean to be bossy!)