Thank you for the Thorns?

The other day I was sitting in my back yard reading about the problem of suffering in the world. Most authors Christian and non, ancient or modern, see this one issue as the single greatest challenge to Christianity.

 

The question of logic goes, If God is all good, all powerful, all knowing, and all present, how can he allow humans to undergo such suffering within his world. The Christian authors came up with really good arguments about the existence of a real choice, a real Satan, and a fallen world.

As I was pondered what I had read, I got up from my patio chair to pull a few weeds in my backyard. My little girl Kassie helped me. I would pull the weeds and hand them to her. She would then take them over to the green waste bin and get up on her tippy toes to drop them in. She is quite the helper.

 

Then one time I reached down into the ivy to pull up some weeds and accidentally grabbed some dead berry bushes that contained some very nasty thorns. The thorns were so bad that I could not grab them anywhere without pricking my fingers. 

Only two weeks after Easter, I thought of how these thorns were probably just like the cruel crown of thorns that the Roman soldiers pressed onto Jesus head. Then it struck me. These thorns grow naturally because of the curse of Genesis 3.  

It says:

 

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, ….

 

Basically, God tells them that because they disobeyed and ate the fruit the earth would be cursed. It will no longer effortlessly produce fruit, but in order to gain a crop humans must work the ground with toil, and by the sweat of our brows. Consequently, from that moment on, all fruit would be tainted by thorns.

 

When Jesus was on the earth he never tried to argue the logical dilemma of the curse and the goodness of God. The Jews have always maintained that YHWH is all loving and all powerful and yet he still allows the mystery of suffering to remain.

 

Instead of fine sounding arguments, Jesus silenced all need for quarrel by carrying the full brunt of the curse at his death. And the crown of thorns turned out to be more than a cruel mockery to Jesus title as King of the Jews. In divine irony, Jesus crown of thorns have become an everlasting symbol echoing back to the Genesis 3 curse. His crown cries out “this king has come to bare the curse of all creation on his bloody, sweaty brow.”

 

Jesus did not need to argue the logic of how God could be loving, and bring suffering. Instead in one amazing act of love he showed how the father allowed humans to receive the consequences of their choice, and then paid for that very choice by the sacrifice of his own sinless son.

 

What a glorious crown! A symbol on his head of the curse he paid for. How amazing are these thorns! Thank you Jesus for these thorns!  

Pastor/Animal Rescue Specialist

I didn’t know that when I signed up to lead a house church I also signed up to be a animal rescue specialist. Well today I learned that it is so. My wife has a chick’s discipleship/Bible study here at our home on Mondays and Tuesdays. Today one of the disciples called 1/2 an hour late due to a dilemma involving her “fe-lion” and a small wood bunny.

Yes, the dastardly creature brought into her house a tiny baby bunny smaller than the size of my palm. The “Predator” (our new name for the cat) was just playing with the poor creature before it became an afternoon snack.

In the attempt to make a long story shorter, I told the team of ladies that I would keep the snack in my office until the volunteer animal rescue person came by to pick it up. And off the ladies went shopping, while the prey and I hung out and worked on ministry items together.

I found out that this prey was not called to ministry, for soon enough she had exited the laundry basket/make-shift cage and found a corner of the office.

I located her and put her away again. My wife, now back at home, was freaked out by the whole thing.

To add to her excitement I jokingly said “oh oh” the rabbit has gotten out again. She freaked again. I chuckled to my self, and then….. just before I could tell her “just kidding” I peeked into the laundry basket and actually found the WHHHHAAAABIT GONE AGAIN! So I diverted from my ministry tasks to look for the creature that was now becoming a pain in the rear. Thinking to myself, “why couldn’t that cat have been a little quicker with the snackin?”

After about 1/2 hour of looking and praying for the prey (I did the looking… my wife did the praying,) we finally found that the Houdini back in the basket. It seems it outsmarted us by hiding in the crevice of the towels, and out of sight! Moral: Don’t prank you wife where wooded creatures are concerned.

After our hunt the Animal Rescue Specialist (ARS) called with bad news. “Our volunteer was on her way to your neighborhood….” (to save the bunny from certain death from an irritated clergy man) “and she got a flat tire, could you drop the bunny off at our sight on 17th street?”

I began to wonder, “hmmmmm, a flat tire and now I am the ARS!” Am I cut out for such a job? I am here to tell hUmAns about salvation to be found in Jesus, I don’t have time for this. I wasn’t called to bunny ministry.” LONG PAUSE……”sir are you there?” Long Pause…OK I WHAT IS THE ADDRESS?

After a few wrong turns we found the grossly overgrown landscaped home turned animal rescue shelter, delivered the prey, and back to work. “Is this the ministry I was called to?”

Needless to say, I need to make up new business cards. House Church Planting Missionary Pastor, and Animal Rescue Specialist.

Transparent Mainstream at last!

So here it goes. I finally got to “bloggin.” I have succumbed to the ministry leader peer pressure of letting people in on what I am thinking, reading, praying about. I am ok with it though. I am a pretty transparent guy anyway. What you see is what you get. And I think this will be a great way to let my friends, teammates, and family keep up on the Johnson empire. Oh yes it IS grOWING! since my wife took my name, (they will all be assimilated) we have partnered with GOD ALMIGHTY in creating another human. Kassandra Grace Johnson entered the world 13 months ago today. And she has taken on the chief mantle of RoYal jOy of the household. Our black Lab Strider got over his irritation with losing that role pretty quickly. He is a great dog and really good with the new little one.

So now here we are, living in Soquel, California, inarguably the coolest suburban neighborhood in Santa Cruz.

We live 45 steps to the best park in Santa Cruz. At the foothills of a sunbelt, and only 3 miles from Capitola Beach.

The Park here is great! I like to call it Skyball Park, due to the large blue Spherical Artwork that graces its rolling hills. It is actually called Anna Jean Cummings park. Whatever you call it, it is by far the most well attended park on this side of the hill. Tons of great softball and soccer games. Tons of wonderful families hanging out on all the swings and slides.

And I noticed something now that I am not a Mega-church attendee anymore. There are a ton of other non-mega-church (NMA) attendees at the park on Sunday morning! If you are a NMA then you are probably saying to yourself: Yeah-duh! Where have you been on Sunday mornings for the last 35 years? Living under a rock?

Well, I guess you could say that. I have been living, serving, and leading in the evangelical churches of America hoping that more would join us at our isolated events located at buildings outside the communities we are trying to reach.

I have just recently made a shift. My family and I have become a missionary family to the community we live in. We have become non-conventional church planters.

We currently oversee a house church that meets in our neighborhood and sometimes at the beach and park. And we are looking to start churches in non-church buildings and homes within communities all over Santa Cruz and up into San Francisco.

It has been a wild ride so far and I plan on sharing all the turns and dips and hills and drops here on my blog.

Why

Lion of the son?

Well I often find myself with the courage and voice of a lion when trusting in the power and majesty of Jesus. But it is a two-edged sword. There are those days where I can’t seem to muster up enough strength to even get out of bed. I feel more like the cowardly lion than a follower of Aslan. So as long as the wind in my lungs is sustained and the Spirit empowers me to be a witness, I will remain as ferocious as He deems.

With each and every day my faith in the Master grows. My courage is directly proportionate to the level of trust I place in the King of Kings and his eternal WORD.

So if you are with me, here is where I record my charge on the gates of hell with nothing more than a water gun and Faith in a HUGE God.

It should be an exciting journey. I plan on telling you more soon.