We have been reading the last couple sections in Joshua about the division of land. On Saturday, we read about Caleb getting to choose his own land. Caleb is the only other surviving original Israelite besides Joshua. This is probably why he was given this honor. Caleb followed God closely and is now being rewarded for it. We see a continuation of Caleb’s faith that he chooses land which will be hard to tame. He truly had a strong faith in God.
I find it interesting that Judah, Manasseh and Ephraim receive an entire section about the allotment of land. The other tribes are just quickly listed by how they drew their lots. We also see them speaking of the Tabernacle being located in Shiloh. My Bible had a wonderful map of where the territories were located and I would encourage you to look for one in your Bible or go online and google it. You can see how all of the tribes were situated.
Today’s reading in Luke is something that I love about this gospel. Luke is very clear that women were very involved in the ministry of Jesus. This is something that I can appreciate. In a world where women were less thought of, Luke is sure to mention that women played a very large part in our Lord’s ministry. The women were the backbone of his ministry. They kept things running so that Jesus and the disciples could focus on their ministry. This is a beautiful portrait of how I see so many pastor’s wives functioning now. God bless those ladies who free up the godly men in their lives to do the things God is calling them to.
We also read my favorite parable today. The parable of the sower is a beautiful picture of evangelism. We spread seeds every day and I think people get frustrated that there aren’t more flowers grown in their lives. Yet we forget how intensive growing a good gardener is. Many of us don’t do gardens now. Back then this would have been an every day thing for anyone listening to Jesus. We go and toss seeds out and don’t realize that some people just aren’t ready to hear it. They have to have their hearts prepared by God in order for those seeds to grow.
Finally, we see a troubling passage. In verses 19-21 we see something that on the outside looks like Jesus being rude. They do not mean that Jesus doesn’t appreciate his family, or think low of them. He is making a statement about true family being about spiritual relationships. We are part of that spiritual family when we hear and obey God, not because our family is “Christian”. We may not choose our physical family but we do choose whether or not we belong to God’s spiritual family.
Tomorrow’s reading is Joshua 20-22 and Luke 8:22-39.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Joshua 10-12, Luke 7:18-35
Okay so I’m really not into war. I don’t enjoy war movies, or movies with a lot of fighting in general. They turn my stomach. Violence hasn’t ever been fun for me. I can’t stand seeing other people get hurt. I’d make an awful soldier! Lol It actually kept me from being a physician because I don’t like to see other people in pain, it makes me nuts. Yet I do understand that sometimes it is necessary. There is a lot in this world that is bad and when we have the chance to help fix it, we should. We should care for the oppressed and needy. We shouldn’t just sit back and let people die because someone has a whim. This section of Joshua is a little more palatable to me because Israel comes to the rescue of Gibeon. I love that God basically just sweeps away the enemy; the fact that they marched all night to get there and didn’t even rest before they fought points to God’s hand on the whole thing.
I especially love how Joshua uses popular poetry to share how he feels at that moment. Joshua throughout scripture is portrayed as a man of facts. He is cut and dry and very literal. I can imagine that he would want to show thanks to God after that battle, but be at a loss for words. He chose to use a popular poem from elsewhere to express that. Much the same way, we use the praise songs of others, and quotations from others to express how we feel. We don’t have to be original in our praise as long as we praise God for the things he’s done. I think that we put too much emphasis on newness of thought. There is a lot of wisdom in others that we can use.
As I said, I don’t really like reading all of the battle stuff. They moved through Israel taking key cities to gain military and economic control of the area. We see that there were still throughout the Old Testament those left alive in the surrounding areas. This is part of what led to the difficulties of Israel later on. Political dominance would take much longer to achieve.
I also love how in 11:15 it states that “He (Joshua) left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.” The emphasis is on the fact that these directions had been given long ago and the person who was in charge wasn’t even there. Yet Joshua did as he was told. I think of all the times my parents asked me to do things and then left me to it. Sometimes I did it properly, and sometimes I didn’t. When God tells our elders that something is to be done, and they ask us to help, we should do our best to help complete the task. Just because the call isn’t given to us directly doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of obeying it. This concept is repeated in the last verse of chapter 11. Then in chapter 12, we see the long list of victories that God brought to Israel. I will ask you a question. I don’t expect answers, I just want you to think and act on it. What has Pastor Wayne brought before our church as direction from God that you can help with? How can you step out and fulfill this obediently?
In Luke we read about John the Baptist again. We find John sitting in prison where his disciples had been reporting to him on Jesus’ activities most likely. If you’ll remember, John’s mother and Jesus’ mother were close. Close enough that Mary ran there for comfort. That means that Jesus and John probably spent a lot of time together as children. We know that John observed what happened at the baptism of Jesus, but wouldn’t you still have doubts too? Jesus has not come right out and told anyone publically that he is the Messiah. John was raised with the same preconceived notions about whom the Messiah would be and what he would do that everyone else was. Can you imagine finding out that your close friend or cousin is walking around doing miracles and talking about things that are completely out of the normal teachings? That you think he is the son of God but then you find out that he’s breaking the rules that have been followed for years? I don’t blame John for sending his disciples to ask Jesus point blank if he is the Messiah. Jesus answers by meeting those concerns head on. He does what John expects the Messiah to do and then points out that the ones who trust in what he does are blessed, even if the things he does seem weird. How awesome is Jesus? He knows Johns real concerns without even being told and eases them. He does the same for us if we just let him.
It is also interesting to note that Jesus calls John the greatest prophet. He didn’t write a book. He didn’t add to the religious teachings. Yet he is the greatest because he heralded the coming of our complete salvation. He was the greatest, yet he didn’t get to stick around to see things happen on earth. He prepared the way and wasn’t even rewarded with being present for the amazing things Jesus completed. That may seem unfair to us, but who are we to say what is fair and what is not. We complain that we share and share with our friends. We tell people about Jesus but they reject it. We get discouraged by that and stop sharing so much. Why, because we don’t get to pick the fruit? We are not to share to receive a reward here on earth. I think I’ve shared with some of you that I had friends in High School who literally spit on my church. I prayed and prayed and shared Jesus with them and they mocked me. I got teased a lot for it. I could have stopped sharing and I did stop sharing with some of them because it became too abusive. Yet now I sit and I read on facebook the amazing things God did in their lives and I have them tell me that some of the things I said to them made them start to think. I wasn’t there when they became believers. It wasn’t something I said that brought them to Christ finally. It isn’t about me. It is about God working in the hearts of others. We need to take the focus off getting the rewards here on Earth and start thinking about what the big picture is. What is the real purpose of us being here? Can you answer that question?
Finally we see Jesus make a point. There are always people who don’t want to change. They will complain because something is one way, and then complain that something else is the exact opposite. The truth is that they don’t want to do anything different. They are happy to sit and be where they are. We cannot take responsibility for that. People must make their own choices and we must let them. The wise accept Jesus. Those that don’t will see the truth eventually.
Tomorrow’s reading is Joshua 13-15 and Luke 7:36-50.
I especially love how Joshua uses popular poetry to share how he feels at that moment. Joshua throughout scripture is portrayed as a man of facts. He is cut and dry and very literal. I can imagine that he would want to show thanks to God after that battle, but be at a loss for words. He chose to use a popular poem from elsewhere to express that. Much the same way, we use the praise songs of others, and quotations from others to express how we feel. We don’t have to be original in our praise as long as we praise God for the things he’s done. I think that we put too much emphasis on newness of thought. There is a lot of wisdom in others that we can use.
As I said, I don’t really like reading all of the battle stuff. They moved through Israel taking key cities to gain military and economic control of the area. We see that there were still throughout the Old Testament those left alive in the surrounding areas. This is part of what led to the difficulties of Israel later on. Political dominance would take much longer to achieve.
I also love how in 11:15 it states that “He (Joshua) left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.” The emphasis is on the fact that these directions had been given long ago and the person who was in charge wasn’t even there. Yet Joshua did as he was told. I think of all the times my parents asked me to do things and then left me to it. Sometimes I did it properly, and sometimes I didn’t. When God tells our elders that something is to be done, and they ask us to help, we should do our best to help complete the task. Just because the call isn’t given to us directly doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of obeying it. This concept is repeated in the last verse of chapter 11. Then in chapter 12, we see the long list of victories that God brought to Israel. I will ask you a question. I don’t expect answers, I just want you to think and act on it. What has Pastor Wayne brought before our church as direction from God that you can help with? How can you step out and fulfill this obediently?
In Luke we read about John the Baptist again. We find John sitting in prison where his disciples had been reporting to him on Jesus’ activities most likely. If you’ll remember, John’s mother and Jesus’ mother were close. Close enough that Mary ran there for comfort. That means that Jesus and John probably spent a lot of time together as children. We know that John observed what happened at the baptism of Jesus, but wouldn’t you still have doubts too? Jesus has not come right out and told anyone publically that he is the Messiah. John was raised with the same preconceived notions about whom the Messiah would be and what he would do that everyone else was. Can you imagine finding out that your close friend or cousin is walking around doing miracles and talking about things that are completely out of the normal teachings? That you think he is the son of God but then you find out that he’s breaking the rules that have been followed for years? I don’t blame John for sending his disciples to ask Jesus point blank if he is the Messiah. Jesus answers by meeting those concerns head on. He does what John expects the Messiah to do and then points out that the ones who trust in what he does are blessed, even if the things he does seem weird. How awesome is Jesus? He knows Johns real concerns without even being told and eases them. He does the same for us if we just let him.
It is also interesting to note that Jesus calls John the greatest prophet. He didn’t write a book. He didn’t add to the religious teachings. Yet he is the greatest because he heralded the coming of our complete salvation. He was the greatest, yet he didn’t get to stick around to see things happen on earth. He prepared the way and wasn’t even rewarded with being present for the amazing things Jesus completed. That may seem unfair to us, but who are we to say what is fair and what is not. We complain that we share and share with our friends. We tell people about Jesus but they reject it. We get discouraged by that and stop sharing so much. Why, because we don’t get to pick the fruit? We are not to share to receive a reward here on earth. I think I’ve shared with some of you that I had friends in High School who literally spit on my church. I prayed and prayed and shared Jesus with them and they mocked me. I got teased a lot for it. I could have stopped sharing and I did stop sharing with some of them because it became too abusive. Yet now I sit and I read on facebook the amazing things God did in their lives and I have them tell me that some of the things I said to them made them start to think. I wasn’t there when they became believers. It wasn’t something I said that brought them to Christ finally. It isn’t about me. It is about God working in the hearts of others. We need to take the focus off getting the rewards here on Earth and start thinking about what the big picture is. What is the real purpose of us being here? Can you answer that question?
Finally we see Jesus make a point. There are always people who don’t want to change. They will complain because something is one way, and then complain that something else is the exact opposite. The truth is that they don’t want to do anything different. They are happy to sit and be where they are. We cannot take responsibility for that. People must make their own choices and we must let them. The wise accept Jesus. Those that don’t will see the truth eventually.
Tomorrow’s reading is Joshua 13-15 and Luke 7:36-50.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Joshua 8-9, Luke 7:1-17
Okay, so I totally dropped the ball and I am not going to try to catch up. It started with not having internet access in San Francisco and being busy. I have been reading but it takes a lot to get this blog written. I spend time in prayer before and after I read and then I try to let God tell me what to focus on. It may sound easy and fast but it’s far from it. I hope you have all been keeping up on your reading as well. I also read it for myself in NKJV from my study Bible with those notes, and then go to Biblegateway.com to read it in NIV and read their commentary as well. Yet this really is something I know God has led me to do, so I will do my best to not lapse again.
Today’s reading starts out with God reassuring Israel that even though one of them betrayed God in the last chapter, they didn’t need to be afraid of God taking it out on them. They had atoned for it. He encourages Joshua to get back to the work at hand and continue to take possession of the Promised Land. Joshua could have easily told himself that he needed to wait, but instead he moved ahead where God was leading him and was successful. This is a lesson I need to learn. I often let the issues others bring to my life cause me to sin by being afraid that I am not doing what God wants me to do. It doesn’t matter what those around me are doing. I am only responsible for what I am asked to do by God. Others have to be responsible for their own stuff. I can put aside my fears that their behavior will cause me punishment and know that as long as I am obedient, God will bless my efforts.
Now the battle tactics of Israel might upset some because it seems devious. This is a valid point. However, is it devious because that is how we perceive it as humans or is it truly devious? Joshua never told the King of Ai that the men with him were all he had. The King of Ai assumed this based on past experience. Again, I learn from this. I can’t let what has happened to me in the past cause me to assume I know what the deal is in the future just because the situation looks similar. There might be something I didn’t notice or choices made by others in my life that are different and change the outcome. It doesn’t have to be something negative either. The results could be different in a positive way. Maybe if the King of Ai hadn’t relied on his city walls and had scouts out, he might have known there were more men. Or if he’d trained the women to defend the city and not just left the gates open maybe there would have been a defense. We cannot allow our perceptions allow us to not be ready for whatever comes our way. The same is true with our hearts. We should be prepared to protect our hearts even if the situation doesn’t make that look necessary. When we deal with other people, we never know what will happen. They have choices in life just like we do. We need to keep God’s word protected in our hearts and be ready for battle.
One other thing I got from this story about Ai is that sometimes people will perceive what we do as heartless and unloving. The world calls it “tough love”. We can be assured that if we follow God’s guidance and keep in close communion with him, we will walk on the right path in love. The human concept of love is a selfish one so we can’t use it as a yardstick.
I am not sure exactly what to make of the treaty with Gibeon. God told the Israelites to not make treaties with those around them but they didn’t know they were. So is it sin or isn’t it? I find the answer in verse 14. “….they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” Ignorance is one thing, not seeking the wisdom of God is another. You can claim ignorance but if the ability to have wisdom is there, ignorance is no excuse. If you choose to not ask God for the answer to your questions, you are willfully ignorant and that is sin. So Israel had no excuse, just as we have no excuse today. This encourages me to be in my Bible and finding the answers to my questions so that I am not doing things in disobedience just because I didn’t take the time to find out what the real deal was.
We are well into my favorite Gospel now. This is also one of my favorite stories from Luke. It is central to the teachings of Jesus. He praises a Gentile! This was totally unheard of for a rabbi. Not only does he praise him, he claims that he is more faithful than any Jew he’d met! At the time that was a HUGE insult. This is something that we can learn from as well. Often we think that because we go to church and we conduct ourselves in a manner of obedience that we automatically have big faith. That hasn’t always been true in my life and I don’t think it is in the lives of others either. Big faith comes from spending time with God, honing our knowledge of Him and being in communion with the Holy Spirit. We can do all sorts of things, but if we don’t truly believe in the power and promises of God, we aren’t really Christians.
My heart is also lifted by the story of the widow. Jesus looked into her eyes and told her not to cry. I can’t count how many times he’s done this for me. I have spent many days crying and found comfort in the words of Jesus. Especially this week, we should remember that Jesus suffered a lot, but he doesn’t enjoy us suffering. He doesn’t want us to cry, he wants us to find Joy in everything that happens to us. That doesn’t mean it’s not okay to cry. Crying is cleansing. It just means that while we cry we should look to Jesus for comfort. Jesus will take us where we need to go through any challenge that comes before us. He may not raise the dead for us physically, but we can be sure that he will do what is necessary to bring us through anything.
Tomorrow’s reading is Joshua 10-12 and Luke 7:18-35.
Today’s reading starts out with God reassuring Israel that even though one of them betrayed God in the last chapter, they didn’t need to be afraid of God taking it out on them. They had atoned for it. He encourages Joshua to get back to the work at hand and continue to take possession of the Promised Land. Joshua could have easily told himself that he needed to wait, but instead he moved ahead where God was leading him and was successful. This is a lesson I need to learn. I often let the issues others bring to my life cause me to sin by being afraid that I am not doing what God wants me to do. It doesn’t matter what those around me are doing. I am only responsible for what I am asked to do by God. Others have to be responsible for their own stuff. I can put aside my fears that their behavior will cause me punishment and know that as long as I am obedient, God will bless my efforts.
Now the battle tactics of Israel might upset some because it seems devious. This is a valid point. However, is it devious because that is how we perceive it as humans or is it truly devious? Joshua never told the King of Ai that the men with him were all he had. The King of Ai assumed this based on past experience. Again, I learn from this. I can’t let what has happened to me in the past cause me to assume I know what the deal is in the future just because the situation looks similar. There might be something I didn’t notice or choices made by others in my life that are different and change the outcome. It doesn’t have to be something negative either. The results could be different in a positive way. Maybe if the King of Ai hadn’t relied on his city walls and had scouts out, he might have known there were more men. Or if he’d trained the women to defend the city and not just left the gates open maybe there would have been a defense. We cannot allow our perceptions allow us to not be ready for whatever comes our way. The same is true with our hearts. We should be prepared to protect our hearts even if the situation doesn’t make that look necessary. When we deal with other people, we never know what will happen. They have choices in life just like we do. We need to keep God’s word protected in our hearts and be ready for battle.
One other thing I got from this story about Ai is that sometimes people will perceive what we do as heartless and unloving. The world calls it “tough love”. We can be assured that if we follow God’s guidance and keep in close communion with him, we will walk on the right path in love. The human concept of love is a selfish one so we can’t use it as a yardstick.
I am not sure exactly what to make of the treaty with Gibeon. God told the Israelites to not make treaties with those around them but they didn’t know they were. So is it sin or isn’t it? I find the answer in verse 14. “….they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” Ignorance is one thing, not seeking the wisdom of God is another. You can claim ignorance but if the ability to have wisdom is there, ignorance is no excuse. If you choose to not ask God for the answer to your questions, you are willfully ignorant and that is sin. So Israel had no excuse, just as we have no excuse today. This encourages me to be in my Bible and finding the answers to my questions so that I am not doing things in disobedience just because I didn’t take the time to find out what the real deal was.
We are well into my favorite Gospel now. This is also one of my favorite stories from Luke. It is central to the teachings of Jesus. He praises a Gentile! This was totally unheard of for a rabbi. Not only does he praise him, he claims that he is more faithful than any Jew he’d met! At the time that was a HUGE insult. This is something that we can learn from as well. Often we think that because we go to church and we conduct ourselves in a manner of obedience that we automatically have big faith. That hasn’t always been true in my life and I don’t think it is in the lives of others either. Big faith comes from spending time with God, honing our knowledge of Him and being in communion with the Holy Spirit. We can do all sorts of things, but if we don’t truly believe in the power and promises of God, we aren’t really Christians.
My heart is also lifted by the story of the widow. Jesus looked into her eyes and told her not to cry. I can’t count how many times he’s done this for me. I have spent many days crying and found comfort in the words of Jesus. Especially this week, we should remember that Jesus suffered a lot, but he doesn’t enjoy us suffering. He doesn’t want us to cry, he wants us to find Joy in everything that happens to us. That doesn’t mean it’s not okay to cry. Crying is cleansing. It just means that while we cry we should look to Jesus for comfort. Jesus will take us where we need to go through any challenge that comes before us. He may not raise the dead for us physically, but we can be sure that he will do what is necessary to bring us through anything.
Tomorrow’s reading is Joshua 10-12 and Luke 7:18-35.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Deuteronomy 5-17, Mark 15- Luke 1:56
Okay, so I missed not one but three days of the blog. Now I get to try to catch you all up. I encourage you not to get discouraged when you miss a day or two or three. This is time you’re giving to God in order to bring yourself closer to him. If you don’t see a friend for a few days isn’t it nice to spend some extra time with them to reconnect? It is the same with God. Don’t beat yourself up; just get back in the game.
The LONG reading today begins with the great commandment. First and foremost, we are to love God. Not just a god, but the LORD our God. God expects us to internalize the covenant we have with him. It should be part of our very being. We need to make it the core of what we talk about, how we behave, how we interact with other people, what we turn to when we are having issues or temptations, and what we teach to those around us. When it talks about “fearing the Lord”, it isn’t talking about being scared. It is talking about obeying his commandments and respecting God. Putting him in the place he belongs in our hearts and lives. Love is the root of obedience. If you truly love someone, you do your best to do what they ask and what pleases them. That is selfless love. There isn’t a lot of that anymore, yet that is exactly what God calls us to. We spend way too much time thinking that we should love ourselves regardless of what that does to those around us, or to God. If we truly love God, accept him as our savior, and choose him as our Lord then we will obey him, and teach those around us to do the same. That is the focus of this chapter in Deuteronomy.
Verses 4-9 are called the Shema in Jewish culture. Every morning and evening the rabbis recite it for those gathered. Why? So that it will be the center of their thinking. The whole point of the Old Testament was to clarify that there is only one God. Everyone around them worshipped multiple Gods. Man didn’t comprehend that God is beyond what we can do, he does it all. God has committed himself to us in love and we are to give him all of us that we can. God didn’t just make a covenant with a few people. He made it with generation after generation. We can all enjoy the blessings that come with it, if we choose to enter into that covenant.
In chapter 7, Moses goes on to discuss the blessings and victory that comes from following God. God doesn’t just expect us to follow rules and regulations because he feels like controlling us. It isn’t about control. It is about knowledge. God knows everything. He knows what choices will ultimately lead to, he knows exactly the consequences that will follow actions, and he knows what will happen in the future. People in our culture spend tons of money on talking to psychics, and they aren’t even right 10% of the time. Yet people do exactly what they tell them to for just that small amount. It is the same with horoscopes and other things like that. Let me ask you a question. If you met a guy who knew which stocks were going to go up, and which were going to go down, would you listen to him about where to invest your money? If he was right 100% of the time would you entrust him with everything you had? God knows 100% of the time what is going to happen to us ultimately. Yet we choose to follow our own path, try to manipulate what is going on in our lives and do what we feel like doing. Is that smart? I came the realization that even though I don’t always feel good about what God is doing in my life at the moment, not once has he not brought me through that to something better. Not once. My life has not been easy. I have had a lot of awful things happen to me but he has always brought me through it to something amazing when I chose to follow his ways. That is what he expects, and if we do that, we will find blessings. Not part of the time, or most of the time, but all of the time.
Chapter 8 is about remembering who God is, what he does, and obeying him, and in chapter 9, Moses goes on to remind them that by recalling our past mistakes without allowing that to drag us down will help us to stay focused on why we are following God. Then in chapter 10, Moses talks about how our obedience is an expression of grateful Love for God. Are we seeing a theme here? We are to Obey God. That is much easier when we remember a few things. Moses pointed out the things Israel should remember. We can apply these same things to our lives as well. First, God provided every need they had in the desert. Food, water, their clothes didn’t give out, anything they needed was there. We are the same. I cannot count how many times I’ve wondered how I got all the bills paid and had plenty of food to feed my family. We were sick last September, my entire family including some visitors we had. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feed everyone and get medicine for everyone. I was making due fixing food, but things were starting to run out. Then out of the blue, Esther Garcia called me and asked if we needed anything. I asked her if she could grab some medicine for me and bring it over. Not only did she do that, but she brought dinner. It was exactly the type of food our guests liked and everyone enjoyed it. I hadn’t told Esther I needed that, or that we were almost out of kid’s medicine as well. Yet, I believe because she was listening to God, she allowed him to use her to meet my needs. She didn’t know what they were, but God did. Secondly, Moses told them to remember that they are naturally rebellious. We have a sin nature that makes us that way. None of us are going to follow God by our own ability. Our human nature will always call us to be rebellious. We don’t deserve good things because of what we do, or because we are good people. No one is a good person. People can’t be good on their own. It is Christ living in us that makes us good. Finally, God has given us a system for bringing us back into fellowship with him. It isn’t because we’re awesome, or fun or anything else about us. It is because he is merciful and loves us. That’s it. If we remember these things daily and talk about them together, we will be focusing on God and his ability to help us, and find it easier to obey God.
Chapters 11 through 17 are focusing on the special guidelines God expected Israel to follow. We are free of many of these now through Jesus. As I have mentioned before, the old covenant was really to point out to man that we cannot solve the sin issue ourselves. We can never follow the rules completely, do everything that is required or even make up for the things we don’t do. We have to allow God to do that for us. He gave us the opportunity to allow him to do it; we just have to choose to accept that. If we do, he will cleanse us and give us the righteousness we need to be with him. These laws were to make sure that Israel didn’t behave as the other people around them. We are to avoid appearing to be like those that don’t follow God. This is something we should be thinking about today. Jim talked about it on Wednesday night. Do we behave in a way that others see Jesus in us? Do we show in our behavior and lifestyle that God is the Lord of our lives? The Bible tells us that the road to salvation is in choosing Jesus as our LORD and savior. The two go together.
I am going to tackle the readings in Mark separately from the readings in Luke. Let’s start with finishing out Mark. It takes us through the trial of Jesus all the way to his rising from the dead. Mark is very quick and clinical about it. I love how Mark points out that Pilate even recognizes that Jesus is God in a way. Though I’m not sure he grasps exactly what that meant. He knew that Jesus was not claiming to be an earthly King but that it went beyond that. Yet, even that was not enough to cause him to go against his human self interest to pacify the crowd. Pilate was more concerned with pacifying the crowd than he was with doing what was right. We can be grateful that God is not a judge like that. God is a just and fair judge. He doesn’t allow himself to be swayed by what people think.
I am also amazed at the way Mark describes Jesus’ behavior. Through all of it, Jesus did not act in fear. He is the only one through the entire account that doesn’t, yet he is the one that had the most reason to in a human sense. Yet, we see the peace of God in him even as he goes through the horror he does. We also see a beautiful picture of exactly what Jesus did for us in the story. Barabbas was guilty of his crime, Jesus was not. Yet, Barabbas is released and Jesus is crucified in his place. That is exactly what Christ has done for all of us.
I also want to focus on who was there when Jesus died. First, we see Joseph of Arimethea. He was a very prominent person. He had power, privilege and esteem. Yet, Jesus had touched him. He knew the truth and he did what he could even though it would probably hurt him. He didn’t deny Christ, he embraced him. He didn’t worry about whether he’d be mocked, or punished for following Christ; he stepped out and gave what he had to Christ when it was needed. We also see Mary and Mary. The disciples were gone. It was the women who loved Jesus who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross and made sure they knew where he had been laid. We see them then come to the tomb to prepare Jesus for burial. It was because of this faithfulness that they were the first to learn about Christ’s resurrection. They were the ones given the joy of hearing it from the angel and taking the news to the disciples.
Several other things jump out at the end of Mark. First of all, God doesn’t leave them to wonder about the empty tomb. He clearly announces that Jesus has risen from the dead and that everyone who follows him will be restored to fellowship with him. Jesus appeared to many people and blessed them with the knowledge that he had risen from the dead.
Luke is my favorite Gospel. Technically, it is written anonymously. Yet, scholars general agree that it was written by Luke, a doctor who traveled with Paul. He is also believed to be the author of The Acts. They are both dedicated to the same person, acts picks up chronologically where this book leaves off, they use similar passages, and in both the disciples are declared witnesses of what Jesus did. There are many “we” passages where Luke is the obvious companion due to his being left out of the list of who was there. There is not much known about Luke the person from the New Testament. He was a gentile, a doctor, and he traveled closely with Paul, even when Paul was imprisoned. Luke wrote for the common person. He didn’t write to those with knowledge of who God was before being exposed to Jesus. He even tended to substitute Greek expressions where Hebrew ones had been used before and uses less of the Old Testament in his writings. He is also the only gentile author in the New Testament.
The focus is on Jesus dying not only for the Jews, but for the world. Luke wants to give an orderly account of the life of Jesus. It is intended to be an account that progresses from beginning to end in as complete and accurate way as possible. The entirety of Jesus’ life on earth from birth to ascension is described, which is more inclusive than the other gospels. He writes to expose those who are unfamiliar with this sort of God to exactly who Jesus is and what he did. He wrote to those who had gotten an idea of this in order to give them certainty of it, to give them knowledge to back up their faith. This is something that speaks directly to my soul. Luke speaks in very scientific ways at times, and shares things about Jesus that increases our faith and reduces our doubt. His goal is to illustrate what Jesus did to back up what he says.
We start with Luke’s greeting. This is a very Greek way to begin an account. He addresses this to “Theophilus” which means friend of God. Luke tells us that he is not the first to write about Jesus, and that he was not a personal witness to these things. He states that his information comes from first hand sources that were present for these events, which means that they are accurate and true.
Luke gives us a beautiful story about the people surrounding Jesus and John the Baptist. I love the way he shows the faith of those who raised them. He shows that while they were considered blameless in God’s eyes because of their faith, they still made mistakes. God still used them to bring about his will. I also find it interesting that while God chose to force Zechariah to be silent, he didn’t silence Elizabeth, she kept quiet on her own. I won’t touch that one, but think about why that might be. I don’t think it only had to do with gender either.
Next, we see Mary visited as well. I am continually amazed at the faith of Mary. It isn’t hard to see why some would be led to worship her as well, not that I’m condoning that. Only God should be worshipped. I do however, pray that I would have the faith and strength of character that Mary shows in the Bible. She was only as old as many of you. Mary was a young teenage woman living in a world that didn’t value women very much. She was chosen to be the vessel that brought salvation into the world physically. This would on the outside make her look like she was impure. The result of that impurity according to the law was death. It could mean her losing the man she loved, her family, her future, her reputation. It would mean losing everything that she had spent her entire life building up. She gave it all up in an instant just because God asked her to. She trusted him to lead her and take care of her even if she couldn’t see how it would possibly turn out well. I can imagine the insults, the gossip, and possibly the physical blows that she had to suffer.
The angel also tells Mary why Jesus will be great. He will be the son of God. God himself is coming to be with us on earth. Mary will get to be the person physically closest to him. I can’t imagine the fellowship she experienced by being Christ’s mother. I always wonder if as a child when Mary felt overwhelmed if Jesus comforted her directly as God would. She will always be known as the mother of a King who will reign forever. These are great pictures of what will come. Yet, I can still imagine her weighing out whether her personal suffering will be worth all of that. Or maybe God took into account that she was a teenager and wouldn’t consider the consequences as much as what she was being promised. Regardless, Mary faced a lot of pain and suffering by being obedient to God.
She goes to visit Elizabeth. It says she went with haste. This implies that she was running away in my mind. Maybe not running away from home, but getting away from judging eyes. It is obvious that Elizabeth was a comfort and support to Mary. I have been blessed to have an awesome relationship with my niece. I had the same relationship with my sister when I was a teenager. No matter how bad it was, or how ashamed I was, I knew I could go to my sister and she would comfort me even if she had to give me a few choice words to go with it. I believe that my niece has that same relationship with me. That is the kind of relationship I see between Elizabeth and Mary. I also see that as soon as Mary entered the house, Elizabeth knew that what might appear to be sin on the outside was actually the blessing of God. I can imagine that even though she believed that Elizabeth would love her regardless, the pronouncement by Elizabeth that she understood the entire situation must have been a relief to Mary. This is evident in the spontaneous song Mary bursts into. She praises God. She celebrates God’s holiness, his mercy and his power. He is merciful to those who fear him, who are humble, and those that are in need. She contrasts these with their opposites. He has done amazing things for all of us if we just take the time to realize them. God is not a god of the few, but a god of all. We all can find miracles in our lives. Chief of which is that he sent his son to pay for our sins and make a personal relationship with him possible. How awesome is that?
Our reading tomorrow is Deuteronomy 18-20 and Luke 1:57-80. I am leaving for San Francisco tomorrow but I will take my laptop and do my best to blog each day. Please pray for our safety and that God will lead us while we’re there.
The LONG reading today begins with the great commandment. First and foremost, we are to love God. Not just a god, but the LORD our God. God expects us to internalize the covenant we have with him. It should be part of our very being. We need to make it the core of what we talk about, how we behave, how we interact with other people, what we turn to when we are having issues or temptations, and what we teach to those around us. When it talks about “fearing the Lord”, it isn’t talking about being scared. It is talking about obeying his commandments and respecting God. Putting him in the place he belongs in our hearts and lives. Love is the root of obedience. If you truly love someone, you do your best to do what they ask and what pleases them. That is selfless love. There isn’t a lot of that anymore, yet that is exactly what God calls us to. We spend way too much time thinking that we should love ourselves regardless of what that does to those around us, or to God. If we truly love God, accept him as our savior, and choose him as our Lord then we will obey him, and teach those around us to do the same. That is the focus of this chapter in Deuteronomy.
Verses 4-9 are called the Shema in Jewish culture. Every morning and evening the rabbis recite it for those gathered. Why? So that it will be the center of their thinking. The whole point of the Old Testament was to clarify that there is only one God. Everyone around them worshipped multiple Gods. Man didn’t comprehend that God is beyond what we can do, he does it all. God has committed himself to us in love and we are to give him all of us that we can. God didn’t just make a covenant with a few people. He made it with generation after generation. We can all enjoy the blessings that come with it, if we choose to enter into that covenant.
In chapter 7, Moses goes on to discuss the blessings and victory that comes from following God. God doesn’t just expect us to follow rules and regulations because he feels like controlling us. It isn’t about control. It is about knowledge. God knows everything. He knows what choices will ultimately lead to, he knows exactly the consequences that will follow actions, and he knows what will happen in the future. People in our culture spend tons of money on talking to psychics, and they aren’t even right 10% of the time. Yet people do exactly what they tell them to for just that small amount. It is the same with horoscopes and other things like that. Let me ask you a question. If you met a guy who knew which stocks were going to go up, and which were going to go down, would you listen to him about where to invest your money? If he was right 100% of the time would you entrust him with everything you had? God knows 100% of the time what is going to happen to us ultimately. Yet we choose to follow our own path, try to manipulate what is going on in our lives and do what we feel like doing. Is that smart? I came the realization that even though I don’t always feel good about what God is doing in my life at the moment, not once has he not brought me through that to something better. Not once. My life has not been easy. I have had a lot of awful things happen to me but he has always brought me through it to something amazing when I chose to follow his ways. That is what he expects, and if we do that, we will find blessings. Not part of the time, or most of the time, but all of the time.
Chapter 8 is about remembering who God is, what he does, and obeying him, and in chapter 9, Moses goes on to remind them that by recalling our past mistakes without allowing that to drag us down will help us to stay focused on why we are following God. Then in chapter 10, Moses talks about how our obedience is an expression of grateful Love for God. Are we seeing a theme here? We are to Obey God. That is much easier when we remember a few things. Moses pointed out the things Israel should remember. We can apply these same things to our lives as well. First, God provided every need they had in the desert. Food, water, their clothes didn’t give out, anything they needed was there. We are the same. I cannot count how many times I’ve wondered how I got all the bills paid and had plenty of food to feed my family. We were sick last September, my entire family including some visitors we had. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feed everyone and get medicine for everyone. I was making due fixing food, but things were starting to run out. Then out of the blue, Esther Garcia called me and asked if we needed anything. I asked her if she could grab some medicine for me and bring it over. Not only did she do that, but she brought dinner. It was exactly the type of food our guests liked and everyone enjoyed it. I hadn’t told Esther I needed that, or that we were almost out of kid’s medicine as well. Yet, I believe because she was listening to God, she allowed him to use her to meet my needs. She didn’t know what they were, but God did. Secondly, Moses told them to remember that they are naturally rebellious. We have a sin nature that makes us that way. None of us are going to follow God by our own ability. Our human nature will always call us to be rebellious. We don’t deserve good things because of what we do, or because we are good people. No one is a good person. People can’t be good on their own. It is Christ living in us that makes us good. Finally, God has given us a system for bringing us back into fellowship with him. It isn’t because we’re awesome, or fun or anything else about us. It is because he is merciful and loves us. That’s it. If we remember these things daily and talk about them together, we will be focusing on God and his ability to help us, and find it easier to obey God.
Chapters 11 through 17 are focusing on the special guidelines God expected Israel to follow. We are free of many of these now through Jesus. As I have mentioned before, the old covenant was really to point out to man that we cannot solve the sin issue ourselves. We can never follow the rules completely, do everything that is required or even make up for the things we don’t do. We have to allow God to do that for us. He gave us the opportunity to allow him to do it; we just have to choose to accept that. If we do, he will cleanse us and give us the righteousness we need to be with him. These laws were to make sure that Israel didn’t behave as the other people around them. We are to avoid appearing to be like those that don’t follow God. This is something we should be thinking about today. Jim talked about it on Wednesday night. Do we behave in a way that others see Jesus in us? Do we show in our behavior and lifestyle that God is the Lord of our lives? The Bible tells us that the road to salvation is in choosing Jesus as our LORD and savior. The two go together.
I am going to tackle the readings in Mark separately from the readings in Luke. Let’s start with finishing out Mark. It takes us through the trial of Jesus all the way to his rising from the dead. Mark is very quick and clinical about it. I love how Mark points out that Pilate even recognizes that Jesus is God in a way. Though I’m not sure he grasps exactly what that meant. He knew that Jesus was not claiming to be an earthly King but that it went beyond that. Yet, even that was not enough to cause him to go against his human self interest to pacify the crowd. Pilate was more concerned with pacifying the crowd than he was with doing what was right. We can be grateful that God is not a judge like that. God is a just and fair judge. He doesn’t allow himself to be swayed by what people think.
I am also amazed at the way Mark describes Jesus’ behavior. Through all of it, Jesus did not act in fear. He is the only one through the entire account that doesn’t, yet he is the one that had the most reason to in a human sense. Yet, we see the peace of God in him even as he goes through the horror he does. We also see a beautiful picture of exactly what Jesus did for us in the story. Barabbas was guilty of his crime, Jesus was not. Yet, Barabbas is released and Jesus is crucified in his place. That is exactly what Christ has done for all of us.
I also want to focus on who was there when Jesus died. First, we see Joseph of Arimethea. He was a very prominent person. He had power, privilege and esteem. Yet, Jesus had touched him. He knew the truth and he did what he could even though it would probably hurt him. He didn’t deny Christ, he embraced him. He didn’t worry about whether he’d be mocked, or punished for following Christ; he stepped out and gave what he had to Christ when it was needed. We also see Mary and Mary. The disciples were gone. It was the women who loved Jesus who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross and made sure they knew where he had been laid. We see them then come to the tomb to prepare Jesus for burial. It was because of this faithfulness that they were the first to learn about Christ’s resurrection. They were the ones given the joy of hearing it from the angel and taking the news to the disciples.
Several other things jump out at the end of Mark. First of all, God doesn’t leave them to wonder about the empty tomb. He clearly announces that Jesus has risen from the dead and that everyone who follows him will be restored to fellowship with him. Jesus appeared to many people and blessed them with the knowledge that he had risen from the dead.
Luke is my favorite Gospel. Technically, it is written anonymously. Yet, scholars general agree that it was written by Luke, a doctor who traveled with Paul. He is also believed to be the author of The Acts. They are both dedicated to the same person, acts picks up chronologically where this book leaves off, they use similar passages, and in both the disciples are declared witnesses of what Jesus did. There are many “we” passages where Luke is the obvious companion due to his being left out of the list of who was there. There is not much known about Luke the person from the New Testament. He was a gentile, a doctor, and he traveled closely with Paul, even when Paul was imprisoned. Luke wrote for the common person. He didn’t write to those with knowledge of who God was before being exposed to Jesus. He even tended to substitute Greek expressions where Hebrew ones had been used before and uses less of the Old Testament in his writings. He is also the only gentile author in the New Testament.
The focus is on Jesus dying not only for the Jews, but for the world. Luke wants to give an orderly account of the life of Jesus. It is intended to be an account that progresses from beginning to end in as complete and accurate way as possible. The entirety of Jesus’ life on earth from birth to ascension is described, which is more inclusive than the other gospels. He writes to expose those who are unfamiliar with this sort of God to exactly who Jesus is and what he did. He wrote to those who had gotten an idea of this in order to give them certainty of it, to give them knowledge to back up their faith. This is something that speaks directly to my soul. Luke speaks in very scientific ways at times, and shares things about Jesus that increases our faith and reduces our doubt. His goal is to illustrate what Jesus did to back up what he says.
We start with Luke’s greeting. This is a very Greek way to begin an account. He addresses this to “Theophilus” which means friend of God. Luke tells us that he is not the first to write about Jesus, and that he was not a personal witness to these things. He states that his information comes from first hand sources that were present for these events, which means that they are accurate and true.
Luke gives us a beautiful story about the people surrounding Jesus and John the Baptist. I love the way he shows the faith of those who raised them. He shows that while they were considered blameless in God’s eyes because of their faith, they still made mistakes. God still used them to bring about his will. I also find it interesting that while God chose to force Zechariah to be silent, he didn’t silence Elizabeth, she kept quiet on her own. I won’t touch that one, but think about why that might be. I don’t think it only had to do with gender either.
Next, we see Mary visited as well. I am continually amazed at the faith of Mary. It isn’t hard to see why some would be led to worship her as well, not that I’m condoning that. Only God should be worshipped. I do however, pray that I would have the faith and strength of character that Mary shows in the Bible. She was only as old as many of you. Mary was a young teenage woman living in a world that didn’t value women very much. She was chosen to be the vessel that brought salvation into the world physically. This would on the outside make her look like she was impure. The result of that impurity according to the law was death. It could mean her losing the man she loved, her family, her future, her reputation. It would mean losing everything that she had spent her entire life building up. She gave it all up in an instant just because God asked her to. She trusted him to lead her and take care of her even if she couldn’t see how it would possibly turn out well. I can imagine the insults, the gossip, and possibly the physical blows that she had to suffer.
The angel also tells Mary why Jesus will be great. He will be the son of God. God himself is coming to be with us on earth. Mary will get to be the person physically closest to him. I can’t imagine the fellowship she experienced by being Christ’s mother. I always wonder if as a child when Mary felt overwhelmed if Jesus comforted her directly as God would. She will always be known as the mother of a King who will reign forever. These are great pictures of what will come. Yet, I can still imagine her weighing out whether her personal suffering will be worth all of that. Or maybe God took into account that she was a teenager and wouldn’t consider the consequences as much as what she was being promised. Regardless, Mary faced a lot of pain and suffering by being obedient to God.
She goes to visit Elizabeth. It says she went with haste. This implies that she was running away in my mind. Maybe not running away from home, but getting away from judging eyes. It is obvious that Elizabeth was a comfort and support to Mary. I have been blessed to have an awesome relationship with my niece. I had the same relationship with my sister when I was a teenager. No matter how bad it was, or how ashamed I was, I knew I could go to my sister and she would comfort me even if she had to give me a few choice words to go with it. I believe that my niece has that same relationship with me. That is the kind of relationship I see between Elizabeth and Mary. I also see that as soon as Mary entered the house, Elizabeth knew that what might appear to be sin on the outside was actually the blessing of God. I can imagine that even though she believed that Elizabeth would love her regardless, the pronouncement by Elizabeth that she understood the entire situation must have been a relief to Mary. This is evident in the spontaneous song Mary bursts into. She praises God. She celebrates God’s holiness, his mercy and his power. He is merciful to those who fear him, who are humble, and those that are in need. She contrasts these with their opposites. He has done amazing things for all of us if we just take the time to realize them. God is not a god of the few, but a god of all. We all can find miracles in our lives. Chief of which is that he sent his son to pay for our sins and make a personal relationship with him possible. How awesome is that?
Our reading tomorrow is Deuteronomy 18-20 and Luke 1:57-80. I am leaving for San Francisco tomorrow but I will take my laptop and do my best to blog each day. Please pray for our safety and that God will lead us while we’re there.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Deuteronomy 4-5, Mark 14:53-72
Good morning! I woke up in darkness and had the pleasure of watching the sunrise. What a beautiful world God gave us to live in. Today we’re covering the Ten Commandments being given a last time before Moses leaves them. In chapter 4, he reminds them about how they came into covenant with God. Israel was special, they were different from other nations. No other nation was in a covenant relationship with God the way they were, and there was a definite difference between them and every other people on Earth. God was not close to anyone else. Only Israel had such a close personal relationship with their deity. Those that follow and obey are chosen, those that don’t are destroyed as we see in the passage about Moab. I love how Moses points out in verse 6 that no one obeys God by accident or naturally. We have to choose to follow him and obey his commands. The Law is there to spell out the content and character that God wants in our lives, we have to choose to accept that as a way of life.
Moses goes on to remind them that they cannot forget what the covenant is. If they do, they are just like all the others. Part of keeping the covenant is remembering what God has done for them. If they remember it, it will be easier to obey him. I think this is true for us as well. Yesterday, I taught my 4-6 graders about how to pray. We need to start with Praise and Thanksgiving. When we do that, it is easier to remember why we love God and why we choose to follow him. It is when we focus on what we want, what others are doing and what is going on around us that isn’t of God, that we fail to obey him. The focus being on God helps us to keep the covenant we have with him. Moses warns Israel about that same thing.
What I love about the scene Moses paints of what happened at Sinai is the sensory interaction God gave the Israelites. He didn’t just send the information quietly or in a demure way. He displayed himself for them and gave them aspects of himself when he did. There was a visual and auditory interaction. He did this so that they would recognize him through their experience.
Moses also touches on the fact that God will not share us with anyone. We are either his, or we are not. There is no middle ground. He won’t suffer a rival for our affections. We either give our all to him, or we don’t. If we choose to give our affections to something or someone other than God, we cannot expect to enjoy the blessings of the covenant. Yet, in His mercy, God allows us to return to a relationship with him. The problems we face in this world are not for any purpose other than our restoration to a relationship with God. They are our wake up call. We either pay attention or we don’t. God wants us to be in relationship with him, but he doesn’t want anyone that isn’t willing to give all of their self to him. When we forget, we fall into the ways of the ungodly. Yet we see in verse 29 that those who honestly seek God will find him. Verse 30 goes on to say that honestly seeking him means that we obey him. There is no way to follow God without living a holy lifestyle.
I want to address what is often a difficult passage for people to deal with. In 5:9-10 God talks about judging children for the sins of their parents. First of all, we need to notice that this is stated directly in relation to idolatry. When parents worship things other than God, the children suffer. They don’t learn the truth, or how to obey God. It takes time to fix this and bring the family back to God. Also, when God judged individuals it was often a physical thing. When a parent chooses to make the wrong decisions and suffers physically, the children automatically receive part of the aftermath. These children have a choice. They can either continue in their parent’s sin or they can begin to live for God. They will only be judged on their own choices. Things can be turned around if someone begins to make the right choices, but this is not easy. We can also remember that while sometimes the results of a family choosing sin can last for several generations, God’s love lasts much longer. When we make the right choices and bring our children up in God’s ways, the blessings go on for many more generations than that. This is added encouragement to parents that they should obey God in order to bring blessings and not harm to their children.
In Mark we begin to read the part of Jesus’ life that always makes me cringe. We are so lucky that God gave his Son for us. Jesus never did anything against God. Yet, he had to take the treatment that the rest of us deserved. Everything that I read here in these pages are things I have deserved. Yet Jesus took them for me. He didn’t have to do that. Yet, he loved me so much that he humbled himself to be mistreated just so that I wouldn’t be. Never have I met a person that would do that for me. I thank God every day that he chose to reveal himself to me and allow me to see the truth of what He has done in my life.
This passage in Mark is interesting because of the way he lays things out. He pairs contrasting themes. Jesus confesses himself to the priests, Peter denies him. The council acts out of fear, Jesus acts out of confidence. The Jewish leaders seek false statements and Jesus is all about truth. The council had limited power and were trying to manipulate it to benefit themselves, Jesus is all powerful and chose to not wield it in order that we would benefit. As they were mocking Jesus’ claim to prophecy, the one about Peter’s denial was being fulfilled. Jesus was condemned to death so that we could have life. We see the full purpose and truth when for the first time Jesus clearly and openly says he is the Christ. This was not what condemned him though, it was his statement, “I am.” He was claiming deity as the son of God.
This passage is also difficult because I totally identify with Peter. I always have. He wanted to badly to follow Jesus in the beginning and to please him. Yet, he didn’t really truly understand what that meant and he didn’t really grasp who Jesus really was. He wanted to defend Jesus, but he was rebuked for doing it the way he thought he should. He refused to believe the truth for awhile and then slowly came to a realization. He didn’t see how he could be redeemed from his behavior, but Jesus came and intimately brought him back into relationship with Him. Here we see Peter deny Jesus. Jesus told him he would do this, but Peter slept instead of preparing himself through prayer and ended up doing just what Jesus had warned him of despite Peter’s protests that it would never happen. He first denied that he understood what the girl was accusing him of in verse 68. Then he directly lied outright saying he was not a follower of Jesus in verse 70. Finally, he swore an oath that he was not a disciple of Christ in verse 71. We just went over what a serious statement an oath is. He acted in his fear and tried to protect himself. He wasn’t thinking about anything but protecting himself. When the rooster crowed the second time, he finally realized the truth of what he’d done in his fear. He was instantly sorry and wept. Yet, the only one who could help him was currently being beaten and sentenced to death. Can you imagine the feeling of hopelessness that would have come over Peter at this point? It would have been crippling.
Tomorrow’s reading is Deuteronomy 6:1-9:6 and Mark 15:1-41.
Moses goes on to remind them that they cannot forget what the covenant is. If they do, they are just like all the others. Part of keeping the covenant is remembering what God has done for them. If they remember it, it will be easier to obey him. I think this is true for us as well. Yesterday, I taught my 4-6 graders about how to pray. We need to start with Praise and Thanksgiving. When we do that, it is easier to remember why we love God and why we choose to follow him. It is when we focus on what we want, what others are doing and what is going on around us that isn’t of God, that we fail to obey him. The focus being on God helps us to keep the covenant we have with him. Moses warns Israel about that same thing.
What I love about the scene Moses paints of what happened at Sinai is the sensory interaction God gave the Israelites. He didn’t just send the information quietly or in a demure way. He displayed himself for them and gave them aspects of himself when he did. There was a visual and auditory interaction. He did this so that they would recognize him through their experience.
Moses also touches on the fact that God will not share us with anyone. We are either his, or we are not. There is no middle ground. He won’t suffer a rival for our affections. We either give our all to him, or we don’t. If we choose to give our affections to something or someone other than God, we cannot expect to enjoy the blessings of the covenant. Yet, in His mercy, God allows us to return to a relationship with him. The problems we face in this world are not for any purpose other than our restoration to a relationship with God. They are our wake up call. We either pay attention or we don’t. God wants us to be in relationship with him, but he doesn’t want anyone that isn’t willing to give all of their self to him. When we forget, we fall into the ways of the ungodly. Yet we see in verse 29 that those who honestly seek God will find him. Verse 30 goes on to say that honestly seeking him means that we obey him. There is no way to follow God without living a holy lifestyle.
I want to address what is often a difficult passage for people to deal with. In 5:9-10 God talks about judging children for the sins of their parents. First of all, we need to notice that this is stated directly in relation to idolatry. When parents worship things other than God, the children suffer. They don’t learn the truth, or how to obey God. It takes time to fix this and bring the family back to God. Also, when God judged individuals it was often a physical thing. When a parent chooses to make the wrong decisions and suffers physically, the children automatically receive part of the aftermath. These children have a choice. They can either continue in their parent’s sin or they can begin to live for God. They will only be judged on their own choices. Things can be turned around if someone begins to make the right choices, but this is not easy. We can also remember that while sometimes the results of a family choosing sin can last for several generations, God’s love lasts much longer. When we make the right choices and bring our children up in God’s ways, the blessings go on for many more generations than that. This is added encouragement to parents that they should obey God in order to bring blessings and not harm to their children.
In Mark we begin to read the part of Jesus’ life that always makes me cringe. We are so lucky that God gave his Son for us. Jesus never did anything against God. Yet, he had to take the treatment that the rest of us deserved. Everything that I read here in these pages are things I have deserved. Yet Jesus took them for me. He didn’t have to do that. Yet, he loved me so much that he humbled himself to be mistreated just so that I wouldn’t be. Never have I met a person that would do that for me. I thank God every day that he chose to reveal himself to me and allow me to see the truth of what He has done in my life.
This passage in Mark is interesting because of the way he lays things out. He pairs contrasting themes. Jesus confesses himself to the priests, Peter denies him. The council acts out of fear, Jesus acts out of confidence. The Jewish leaders seek false statements and Jesus is all about truth. The council had limited power and were trying to manipulate it to benefit themselves, Jesus is all powerful and chose to not wield it in order that we would benefit. As they were mocking Jesus’ claim to prophecy, the one about Peter’s denial was being fulfilled. Jesus was condemned to death so that we could have life. We see the full purpose and truth when for the first time Jesus clearly and openly says he is the Christ. This was not what condemned him though, it was his statement, “I am.” He was claiming deity as the son of God.
This passage is also difficult because I totally identify with Peter. I always have. He wanted to badly to follow Jesus in the beginning and to please him. Yet, he didn’t really truly understand what that meant and he didn’t really grasp who Jesus really was. He wanted to defend Jesus, but he was rebuked for doing it the way he thought he should. He refused to believe the truth for awhile and then slowly came to a realization. He didn’t see how he could be redeemed from his behavior, but Jesus came and intimately brought him back into relationship with Him. Here we see Peter deny Jesus. Jesus told him he would do this, but Peter slept instead of preparing himself through prayer and ended up doing just what Jesus had warned him of despite Peter’s protests that it would never happen. He first denied that he understood what the girl was accusing him of in verse 68. Then he directly lied outright saying he was not a follower of Jesus in verse 70. Finally, he swore an oath that he was not a disciple of Christ in verse 71. We just went over what a serious statement an oath is. He acted in his fear and tried to protect himself. He wasn’t thinking about anything but protecting himself. When the rooster crowed the second time, he finally realized the truth of what he’d done in his fear. He was instantly sorry and wept. Yet, the only one who could help him was currently being beaten and sentenced to death. Can you imagine the feeling of hopelessness that would have come over Peter at this point? It would have been crippling.
Tomorrow’s reading is Deuteronomy 6:1-9:6 and Mark 15:1-41.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Psalms 34 & 35
Happy Sunday! I am so blessed by the time change. I think this is the first time I’ve actually been glad for it. lol I love the long evenings and the time change always starts those. I went to bed at a decent hour as well and that helped! Lol I hope that you find the blessings in the time change as I did. It is amazing to me how when I’m in God’s word, I am so much more positive. I pray I remember that when I face those times where I just don’t feel like doing it.
The first Psalm today is about how God cares. This is a really uplifting subject to me. Often I feel like I don’t matter. I’ve felt like I was either an afterthought or on the outside a lot of my life. That isn’t a fun feeling. I still struggle with it now. I try not to take things personally when I am not included but it is hard to do that. The thing is that I’m never left out where God is concerned. He may put me through some pretty crazy things and sometimes it’s not even directly for my benefit but for someone else’s, but he always cares about how I feel. I am always in his close circle and won’t ever be left out if I do my part to be there.
This psalm actually piggy backs on what I wrote in the first part of this blog. We should bless the Lord, which means praise him, all the time no matter what is happening. That is a difficult thing to do in our humanity. Yet, if you’ve ever tried it, you know that praising the Lord can make things seem much better and lift your spirits. In the very beginning it says that his praise will always be in my mouth. I don’t do that very well a lot of the time. We need to be constantly telling the world what God IS doing for us, not bemoaning what he is not. We see that in verse two. When we focus on what God is NOT doing for us, we tend to give a bad picture of who he is. Next time I am worrying about what God is not doing in my life, I am going to think of something he is doing so that I can focus on that. Maybe then I will walk around praising him constantly. We also see in the next verse that we should praise him together. That is my favorite part of worship on Sunday morning, when we are all singing our hearts out for the Lord in our own way. I can just see him up there on his throne smiling and moving to it just like we would to the radio in our car. This is our main purpose in life, to praise God and bring him glory. How well have you been fulfilling your purpose?
I want to focus on one verse because it really speaks to me. Verse 4 says that the author went to the Lord. He didn’t sit around and whine, he didn’t wait for God to come find him, he went and found the Lord himself. How do we do that? We go where we know he is very present. We go to our Bible, to prayer or to church. Yes, I know God is everywhere, but if you are talking to him, its prayer, doesn’t matter where you are physically. The verse goes on to say that God heard him. God always hears us, even when we don’t get the answer we want and feel like he’s ignoring us. We don’t spend a lot of time in prayer for the most part. I have gotten back to a habit I started at Biola of talking to God whenever I am alone. Even if I’m walking around the house doing things, I talk to God. It has done amazing things for my attitude. I don’t always get answers I want, and sometimes he is chastising me for something but I have relationship with him and it lifts my heart. Now, the next part is the most important and it gave me an “A-HA!” moment. It doesn’t say God will destroy my enemies, or take away my troubles, or change what is going on around me. It says that “delivered me from all my fears.” Wow, that is amazing. We may not get an answer where things are all better outside of us. We may have to stay in a bad situation, deal with people who treat us badly, or do something we wouldn’t normally do. God doesn’t take away those things; he takes away our fear of them. We can trust him to heal our hearts and make them brave and strong to get us through the things that challenge us. So what are you asking God remove that you really should be asking him to strengthen you through? It goes on to say that if we fear God, making him Lord of our lives, we have nothing else to fear. God has it. Later in this psalm, we see David touch on the fact that the righteous have a lot of troubles. Being a follower of God does not make you immune to that in a physical sense, but if you let him, he can make it bearable inside.
What does David say the way to fear the Lord is? He puts it right out there in verse 13. Don’t speak evil or lie. Don’t talk negatively, gossip, yell, cuss, or anything else that is negative. That is the main impression we give to others. How we speak. For some people, that may be the only thing they ever see of you. That is your witness much of the time. I used to have a really bad habit of cussing. I picked it up because I hung out with a lot of people who thought it was part of expression. It is actually a lack of expression. It shows ignorance of vocabulary. The words are place holders because you can’t find a better word to express yourself. It is not expression, it is a lack thereof. I see kids at the park cussing and yelling and being mean to other children and I get concerned that my kids will begin that sort of behavior. I don’t think very highly of those other children and try to keep my kids away from them. I don’t know if they would care or not, but if someone felt that way about me, I wouldn’t like it. Yet it is due to the actions they choose for themselves. How do you look to other people? What does what is coming out of your mouth say about you?
Okay, on to Psalm 35. This is a prayer for help. The feeling of persecution brings the author to God for help. Have you ever felt like everyone was ganging up on you? Have you ever felt hat you couldn’t do anything without someone punishing you for it? Is there a time you’ve felt like nothing was going your way and everyone hated you? Or that following Jesus brought you nothing but ridicule and shame? When I became a Christian, a lot of my friends turned from me. My boyfriend, who I was supposed to be marrying when I graduated, rejected the changes in my life as well. It isn’t easy to feel like people are persecuting you. The author begins to complain about all of the bad things happening. This may seem to be contradictory to what I was saying before about being positive, but there is a difference here. The author is not lamenting to everyone around him. He is taking his tears to God. He is telling God all the sucky things going on in his life. God is the one we need to be telling because he is the only one that can really do anything about it.
The author pleads for God to help him. We see hope in the last sections saying that God has done it many times, and he will continue to do it for those who are faithful to God. He asks for trouble to those that are trying to harm him and that God would keep them from getting him. He totally expects it because in verse 9 we see him already thanking God for helping him. He has no doubt that God will come through. I wish I could have that attitude all the time. I tell myself that it is people I don’t trust, but God is in control so I need to not worry about what other people are doing, he will come through.
Our reading tomorrow is Deuteronomy 4-5 and Mark 14:53-72.
The first Psalm today is about how God cares. This is a really uplifting subject to me. Often I feel like I don’t matter. I’ve felt like I was either an afterthought or on the outside a lot of my life. That isn’t a fun feeling. I still struggle with it now. I try not to take things personally when I am not included but it is hard to do that. The thing is that I’m never left out where God is concerned. He may put me through some pretty crazy things and sometimes it’s not even directly for my benefit but for someone else’s, but he always cares about how I feel. I am always in his close circle and won’t ever be left out if I do my part to be there.
This psalm actually piggy backs on what I wrote in the first part of this blog. We should bless the Lord, which means praise him, all the time no matter what is happening. That is a difficult thing to do in our humanity. Yet, if you’ve ever tried it, you know that praising the Lord can make things seem much better and lift your spirits. In the very beginning it says that his praise will always be in my mouth. I don’t do that very well a lot of the time. We need to be constantly telling the world what God IS doing for us, not bemoaning what he is not. We see that in verse two. When we focus on what God is NOT doing for us, we tend to give a bad picture of who he is. Next time I am worrying about what God is not doing in my life, I am going to think of something he is doing so that I can focus on that. Maybe then I will walk around praising him constantly. We also see in the next verse that we should praise him together. That is my favorite part of worship on Sunday morning, when we are all singing our hearts out for the Lord in our own way. I can just see him up there on his throne smiling and moving to it just like we would to the radio in our car. This is our main purpose in life, to praise God and bring him glory. How well have you been fulfilling your purpose?
I want to focus on one verse because it really speaks to me. Verse 4 says that the author went to the Lord. He didn’t sit around and whine, he didn’t wait for God to come find him, he went and found the Lord himself. How do we do that? We go where we know he is very present. We go to our Bible, to prayer or to church. Yes, I know God is everywhere, but if you are talking to him, its prayer, doesn’t matter where you are physically. The verse goes on to say that God heard him. God always hears us, even when we don’t get the answer we want and feel like he’s ignoring us. We don’t spend a lot of time in prayer for the most part. I have gotten back to a habit I started at Biola of talking to God whenever I am alone. Even if I’m walking around the house doing things, I talk to God. It has done amazing things for my attitude. I don’t always get answers I want, and sometimes he is chastising me for something but I have relationship with him and it lifts my heart. Now, the next part is the most important and it gave me an “A-HA!” moment. It doesn’t say God will destroy my enemies, or take away my troubles, or change what is going on around me. It says that “delivered me from all my fears.” Wow, that is amazing. We may not get an answer where things are all better outside of us. We may have to stay in a bad situation, deal with people who treat us badly, or do something we wouldn’t normally do. God doesn’t take away those things; he takes away our fear of them. We can trust him to heal our hearts and make them brave and strong to get us through the things that challenge us. So what are you asking God remove that you really should be asking him to strengthen you through? It goes on to say that if we fear God, making him Lord of our lives, we have nothing else to fear. God has it. Later in this psalm, we see David touch on the fact that the righteous have a lot of troubles. Being a follower of God does not make you immune to that in a physical sense, but if you let him, he can make it bearable inside.
What does David say the way to fear the Lord is? He puts it right out there in verse 13. Don’t speak evil or lie. Don’t talk negatively, gossip, yell, cuss, or anything else that is negative. That is the main impression we give to others. How we speak. For some people, that may be the only thing they ever see of you. That is your witness much of the time. I used to have a really bad habit of cussing. I picked it up because I hung out with a lot of people who thought it was part of expression. It is actually a lack of expression. It shows ignorance of vocabulary. The words are place holders because you can’t find a better word to express yourself. It is not expression, it is a lack thereof. I see kids at the park cussing and yelling and being mean to other children and I get concerned that my kids will begin that sort of behavior. I don’t think very highly of those other children and try to keep my kids away from them. I don’t know if they would care or not, but if someone felt that way about me, I wouldn’t like it. Yet it is due to the actions they choose for themselves. How do you look to other people? What does what is coming out of your mouth say about you?
Okay, on to Psalm 35. This is a prayer for help. The feeling of persecution brings the author to God for help. Have you ever felt like everyone was ganging up on you? Have you ever felt hat you couldn’t do anything without someone punishing you for it? Is there a time you’ve felt like nothing was going your way and everyone hated you? Or that following Jesus brought you nothing but ridicule and shame? When I became a Christian, a lot of my friends turned from me. My boyfriend, who I was supposed to be marrying when I graduated, rejected the changes in my life as well. It isn’t easy to feel like people are persecuting you. The author begins to complain about all of the bad things happening. This may seem to be contradictory to what I was saying before about being positive, but there is a difference here. The author is not lamenting to everyone around him. He is taking his tears to God. He is telling God all the sucky things going on in his life. God is the one we need to be telling because he is the only one that can really do anything about it.
The author pleads for God to help him. We see hope in the last sections saying that God has done it many times, and he will continue to do it for those who are faithful to God. He asks for trouble to those that are trying to harm him and that God would keep them from getting him. He totally expects it because in verse 9 we see him already thanking God for helping him. He has no doubt that God will come through. I wish I could have that attitude all the time. I tell myself that it is people I don’t trust, but God is in control so I need to not worry about what other people are doing, he will come through.
Our reading tomorrow is Deuteronomy 4-5 and Mark 14:53-72.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Deuteronomy 1-3, Mark 14:1-52
Okay, so I slacked and today we are doing Deuteronomy 1-3 and Mark 14:1-52. No more if I miss a blog will we just skip that section in my writing. I need to do both the reading and the writing.
Okay, so we start the book of Deuteronomy today. Yesterday I touched a little on it. Tradition in the Jewish faith is that Moses wrote the book. Some scholars now believe that it was written about 600 B.C. and was basically an editorial work. The writing style fits that period and that it pretty much sums up what was in the first books of the Pentateuch with some things removed to make the Jewish culture of the time appear to be complete. This is countered by traditional views that Moses was the author, including Jesus’ view. He quotes Moses over and over again. The structure of the book is also in line with Mosaic writings.
This book is a preparatory for entering the Promised Land. Moses will not be joining them so he must prepare them to obey God without him there. He motivates them by reminding them that they were chosen and that God redeems them because he loves them, not because of who they are personally. Love, Obedience and remembrance are the main themes.
Today we focus on remembering what God did for the people of Israel. Moses spoke directly to the people. He told them the story once more of where they came from and what God had done for them. The author points out that a journey of 11 days took Israel 40 years because of their lack of faith and obedience. How long will your journey take? I have been a Christian since I was 15. I am now 35. Only in the last couple years do I feel like I spend less time in the wilderness and more in the Promised Land, though my years at Biola were probably mostly spent in the Promised Land as well. We too have a choice as to how we respond to God. Do we obey and follow him where he says to go even if it is difficult and scary? Or do we do what we want to do and justify ourselves with every step? One path leads to the Promised Land of living in the freedom of God’s love. The other takes us in circles of slavery to our flesh. Which journey do you want to take? I may have only taken half the time Israel did but it was still too long. God wants us to accept his Lordship and be obedient. Then we will see the blessings that brings.
Moses was doing more than telling a story here. He was explaining why the law was given to them and why they should obey it. When the Israelites obeyed, they were rewarded. It may not have always been the way they’d hoped but they were rewarded. When they didn’t obey, there were negative consequences. Those consequences didn’t always come right away. Some consequences took awhile to come about. God gives us the law to show us how to live in relationship with him. He doesn’t do it to limit us. He does it because he wants a relationship with him, but it can’t be on just any terms because of his holy nature. We choose whether we want to be in that relationship or not. When we obey and trust him, we show that we want a relationship with him and it becomes real. When we don’t, he has no choice but to be separate from us. He doesn’t choose that, we do. God has given us every opportunity to be with him. We have rejected him at every turn.
Moses also tackles another problem. Change in leadership. This is not an easy thing. Especially when a leader has been as integral to the life of the people as Moses had. He was turning over leadership not only to Joshua but to the family leaders. Many people who had less responsibility were starting to have quite a bit more. They had always been able to depend on Moses and his walk with God. Now they had to do it for themselves. Moses took time in verse 9 to remind them that from the beginning his authority had been delegated out. It was only in their habit and insecurity that he had maintained much of it. We are the same way. We are to listen to our pastors and teachers. We are to respect their authority, but ultimately we are responsible for our own walk with God. Jim can’t do it for you. Pastor Wayne can’t live out your relationship with God for you either. We have to do it for ourselves.
I also think that over and over Moses points out that even though they had been miraculously saved over and over, they still struggled with trusting God. I have heard many people say that the Israelites had it easy. So did the disciples. They got to see everything face to face. Miracles happened in their midst on a daily basis. Yet they didn’t get it. “If I were there, I’d have gotten it.” How do you know that? We have miracles happen on a daily basis here as well. When I think of how often I’ve done something stupid and should have had some pretty severe consequences, I am amazed at how God came through. It is only as I look back that I can’t believe that after each of those things happening, I went right back to my sins. I rejected God in the face of my miraculous rescues each and every time. The trick is to recognize when they happen and see them for what they are. We all have our “aha” moments. It is making sure that we learn from them and turn them to God’s glory that is the key.
Moses also touches on the attitude that kept Israel out of the Promised Land for the 40 years. As soon as they heard the punishment, they wanted to turn from their sin and get the reward. God told them it was too late. They had missed the boat. This has happened to me several times in my life. I realized that I was not walking God’s path and changed it. Yet, I still had to suffer the consequences of my earlier behaviors. Many times I think that we think God will just fix everything for us. I especially think that many times because that is how I have worked in my flesh. I run around trying to fix it all. Many times, I steal a lesson from someone by doing so. God allows things to happen to us after we repent not because he is angry with us. He does it because that is how we learn and grow. If he doesn’t allow us to learn the consequences of our actions, how are we supposed to value the choices we have? I have been working on letting people make mistakes and not trying to “guide” them so much. We all have our own journeys and only by allowing those journeys to take place can we allow them to grow into the person they truly are.
We also see a lesson in humility to the Israelites. They were the chosen ones. That didn’t mean they were the only ones God loved. God gave blessings to the descendants of Abraham as well as Jacob. His blessings extend to more than just the chosen people. The Israelites were not allowed to possess anything and they were nomadic, yet God blessed them with everything they needed. They may have wanted more, but they were not lacking in what they needed. Many times we look at those around us and we covet what they have. We wonder why we can’t have it too. There is always a reason that God gives us what he does. Maybe there is a lesson for us to learn, or something waiting that is better for us coming along, maybe what we will receive isn’t ready yet, and unfortunately sometimes we suffer because of a lesson someone else needs to learn. Yet in all these things we can be joyful because we are being used by God in all of this. His glory will come about because of whatever is happening in our lives as long as we remain obedient and allow him to mold us.
Moses takes the story from Israel’s failures to their successes. The battle won, the land already given out, and even more victories. God did all of that. We are only the tools. God is the one who wins the victories. We can only let him use us to do it. When you are sharing with people, serving in a ministry, or even just being a light to your friends, it is God who does the work. What happens because of that work will be what God wills, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t go the way you wished it would. God will make sure the glory part happens in his timing.
Finally, we see the humanity of Moses. He knew he had sinned. He knew he was going to face those consequences. He had already turned over the authority to Joshua. Yet he probably still had some hope that God would change his mind. He faithfully served God and did it knowing that he had to pay the piper eventually. I still think he always had in the back of his mind that if he just served God well enough, God would change his mind. God isn’t like us. He doesn’t rationalize, change or do anything flighty. He is a God of purpose. Moses knew that, but in his humanity he still had hoped he would get to see the Promised Land. Moses was still trying to bargain with God even after all he’d seen. The thing is that I bet once he got up to Heaven and saw what honor there had been in dying alone with God and being buried by God himself, to be in direct communion with him, that is far better than any earthly promised land. Sometimes, we think our punishments are just to torture us, until we realize that the results of those trials are actually the greatest blessings we’ve ever known. Those are the moments I find myself praising God the loudest.
Okay, now our reading in Mark. Again we see the Jewish leaders wanting to take Jesus and kill him but they didn’t want to do it during the festival because they were afraid it would cause a riot and get them in trouble with the Romans. They wanted to do evil but they didn’t want to get caught.
The next section shows a lot about how people respond to Jesus. They are all enjoying a meal with Jesus. A woman comes in and anoints Jesus with very expensive oil. The scripture says it was expensive enough for a years wage for a family. She wanted to honor Jesus with all she had and more. She had probably understood what he’d been teaching lately of his leaving them. Some of them were not pleased at this though. They thought the money should be used differently and were angry that it hadn’t been used as they thought it should be. They criticized her. Jesus rebukes not the woman, but those attacking her. She did something good for Jesus. It was her choice. The poor are there and should be helped, but we should have choice over what we do. No one should tell us where we have to serve or what we have to do except for God. If someone doesn’t like the ministry you want to be involved in, or how you give your offerings (tithes are a different matter we will talk about another time) they need to realize that your stewardship is according to how God tells you it is. This is the passage I most think of when I hear people say that Jesus was a communist. To me, it clearly states right from the savior’s mouth that we are to choose how we serve God with our money. No one should dictate that for us or judge it either. We are all responsible for our own actions and choices.
At the end of this passage we see Judas make his choice. He was very concerned about the money and was unhappy about how it was being handled obviously. The way Jesus was talking, things were going to be much different than Judas had planned on. Now he was messing with the coffers that Judas had control of. He made a choice to betray Jesus because he didn’t like what was happening. My Bible posed an interesting question in the notes and I wanted to share it with you. “Do we respond to Jesus with outright rejection as did the leaders (v1, 2); with calculated self-interest as did Judas (v10, 11); or with an outpouring of our love as did the woman (v3-9)?” Where do you fall most of the time? Do you reject what Jesus wants for you and do whatever you want? Do you use your faith to get what you want when it is convenient, but really focus on what your desires are? Or do you show how much you love Jesus in everything you do? I think we all fall into each of this once in awhile. My prayer is that I can spend the majority of my time following in the footsteps of the woman.
Maundy Thursday is coming up. It is actually my favorite day of the year next to Christmas Eve. I became a Christian at a Maundy Thursday service in the dirt of a cleared cabbage field outside of Mexicali. I always enjoyed Maundy Thursday service as a child because to me, it was the most intimate time the disciples had with Jesus. They actually got to worship with him by conducting the highest ritual there was to the Jewish people. How amazing is that. Not only that, but they were present for the beginning of the new covenant between God and his creation. All that had gone before was now changed according to Christ’s new covenant with us. My family usually holds our own personal Passover Seder on this night to remember how Jesus changed the covenant. It reminds us of where Jesus was coming from and where he was taking us.
We have all heard about the communion story over and over I’m sure. But have we truly looked at what Jesus is saying? Jesus told them how to prepare everything and where to get it. He came and sat and ate with them. He was in complete control. He knew who was going to do what, where he was headed personally and what the result was going to be. Yet, he sat and had fellowship with them. He didn’t whine and cry, he didn’t sit there being depressed. He merely enjoyed his time of fellowship with them and took this time to teach them the last of what they needed to know. If they weren’t prepared at this point, which they weren’t, it wasn’t because Jesus hadn’t shared with them. This gives me hope. My whole life I grew up in the church hearing about Jesus, but I didn’t get it. I shared him with a lot of people over the years who didn’t get it either. Yet, I got it when I was supposed to. The disciples didn’t get it at the Last Supper either. My hero, Peter, even took one last chance to run his mouth and debate with Jesus. Lol Yet eventually, they got it. It took a lot of pain and heartache, but in joy they finally got it.
Can you imagine sitting there eating food with a friend and teacher and having him start talking the way Jesus did? Would you be listening intently or thinking “I think he had a little too much vino.”? Lol The Passover was about God delivering Israel. It was about redemption and reconnecting with God. Jesus was associating himself with that. He identified himself as the real Passover sacrifice that would completely redeem us and connect us to God perfectly. Those people who participate in this by choosing to believe in his sacrifice for our sins are part of this new covenant he speaks of. We are part of the true people of God, for eternity. Every time you take communion, you are making a statement that you want to be part of God’s family. When you leave that experience, you should remember that in how you conduct yourself. It isn’t just a light snack to fit in at church. It is a covenant between you and God. A promise you make to fulfill your end of the bargain to make him Lord of your life. He did his part. Now it is time to do yours.
This is getting really long, but I want to say one more thing about this reading. In the garden, Jesus had brought the disciples with him to the garden to pray. He took Peter, James and John with him a little further. I have been reading a book on John written by Beth Moore this week and the author said something I was really thinking about a lot. Jesus took those three with him a lot, and we take it as them being the favorites. Yet, she pointed out that teachers often bring the “troublesome” or “difficult” students to the front of the class to be able to guide them better. She is totally right. I never thought about the fact that we often hear those three getting it wrong in many stories of the Bible. They didn’t get it most of the time. Yet, Jesus knew that once they did get it, they would be unstoppable at spreading his kingdom. Here we see them missing out on some last minute time with Jesus. He asked them to pray with him, to help him prepare. Yet they slept. How awful must they have felt after the next 12 hours that they had not taken the chance to be with him when they could. How many regrets must they have had? This is a good lesson. They must have had more regrets than you and I could ever imagine. Yet, did that stop them? No. They reconciled to Christ and kept going with a renewed strength. We should take that example and run with it. When you mess up, pick yourself up, reconcile to Jesus and go at it double time. I am going to be trying to do the same.
Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 34-35.
Okay, so we start the book of Deuteronomy today. Yesterday I touched a little on it. Tradition in the Jewish faith is that Moses wrote the book. Some scholars now believe that it was written about 600 B.C. and was basically an editorial work. The writing style fits that period and that it pretty much sums up what was in the first books of the Pentateuch with some things removed to make the Jewish culture of the time appear to be complete. This is countered by traditional views that Moses was the author, including Jesus’ view. He quotes Moses over and over again. The structure of the book is also in line with Mosaic writings.
This book is a preparatory for entering the Promised Land. Moses will not be joining them so he must prepare them to obey God without him there. He motivates them by reminding them that they were chosen and that God redeems them because he loves them, not because of who they are personally. Love, Obedience and remembrance are the main themes.
Today we focus on remembering what God did for the people of Israel. Moses spoke directly to the people. He told them the story once more of where they came from and what God had done for them. The author points out that a journey of 11 days took Israel 40 years because of their lack of faith and obedience. How long will your journey take? I have been a Christian since I was 15. I am now 35. Only in the last couple years do I feel like I spend less time in the wilderness and more in the Promised Land, though my years at Biola were probably mostly spent in the Promised Land as well. We too have a choice as to how we respond to God. Do we obey and follow him where he says to go even if it is difficult and scary? Or do we do what we want to do and justify ourselves with every step? One path leads to the Promised Land of living in the freedom of God’s love. The other takes us in circles of slavery to our flesh. Which journey do you want to take? I may have only taken half the time Israel did but it was still too long. God wants us to accept his Lordship and be obedient. Then we will see the blessings that brings.
Moses was doing more than telling a story here. He was explaining why the law was given to them and why they should obey it. When the Israelites obeyed, they were rewarded. It may not have always been the way they’d hoped but they were rewarded. When they didn’t obey, there were negative consequences. Those consequences didn’t always come right away. Some consequences took awhile to come about. God gives us the law to show us how to live in relationship with him. He doesn’t do it to limit us. He does it because he wants a relationship with him, but it can’t be on just any terms because of his holy nature. We choose whether we want to be in that relationship or not. When we obey and trust him, we show that we want a relationship with him and it becomes real. When we don’t, he has no choice but to be separate from us. He doesn’t choose that, we do. God has given us every opportunity to be with him. We have rejected him at every turn.
Moses also tackles another problem. Change in leadership. This is not an easy thing. Especially when a leader has been as integral to the life of the people as Moses had. He was turning over leadership not only to Joshua but to the family leaders. Many people who had less responsibility were starting to have quite a bit more. They had always been able to depend on Moses and his walk with God. Now they had to do it for themselves. Moses took time in verse 9 to remind them that from the beginning his authority had been delegated out. It was only in their habit and insecurity that he had maintained much of it. We are the same way. We are to listen to our pastors and teachers. We are to respect their authority, but ultimately we are responsible for our own walk with God. Jim can’t do it for you. Pastor Wayne can’t live out your relationship with God for you either. We have to do it for ourselves.
I also think that over and over Moses points out that even though they had been miraculously saved over and over, they still struggled with trusting God. I have heard many people say that the Israelites had it easy. So did the disciples. They got to see everything face to face. Miracles happened in their midst on a daily basis. Yet they didn’t get it. “If I were there, I’d have gotten it.” How do you know that? We have miracles happen on a daily basis here as well. When I think of how often I’ve done something stupid and should have had some pretty severe consequences, I am amazed at how God came through. It is only as I look back that I can’t believe that after each of those things happening, I went right back to my sins. I rejected God in the face of my miraculous rescues each and every time. The trick is to recognize when they happen and see them for what they are. We all have our “aha” moments. It is making sure that we learn from them and turn them to God’s glory that is the key.
Moses also touches on the attitude that kept Israel out of the Promised Land for the 40 years. As soon as they heard the punishment, they wanted to turn from their sin and get the reward. God told them it was too late. They had missed the boat. This has happened to me several times in my life. I realized that I was not walking God’s path and changed it. Yet, I still had to suffer the consequences of my earlier behaviors. Many times I think that we think God will just fix everything for us. I especially think that many times because that is how I have worked in my flesh. I run around trying to fix it all. Many times, I steal a lesson from someone by doing so. God allows things to happen to us after we repent not because he is angry with us. He does it because that is how we learn and grow. If he doesn’t allow us to learn the consequences of our actions, how are we supposed to value the choices we have? I have been working on letting people make mistakes and not trying to “guide” them so much. We all have our own journeys and only by allowing those journeys to take place can we allow them to grow into the person they truly are.
We also see a lesson in humility to the Israelites. They were the chosen ones. That didn’t mean they were the only ones God loved. God gave blessings to the descendants of Abraham as well as Jacob. His blessings extend to more than just the chosen people. The Israelites were not allowed to possess anything and they were nomadic, yet God blessed them with everything they needed. They may have wanted more, but they were not lacking in what they needed. Many times we look at those around us and we covet what they have. We wonder why we can’t have it too. There is always a reason that God gives us what he does. Maybe there is a lesson for us to learn, or something waiting that is better for us coming along, maybe what we will receive isn’t ready yet, and unfortunately sometimes we suffer because of a lesson someone else needs to learn. Yet in all these things we can be joyful because we are being used by God in all of this. His glory will come about because of whatever is happening in our lives as long as we remain obedient and allow him to mold us.
Moses takes the story from Israel’s failures to their successes. The battle won, the land already given out, and even more victories. God did all of that. We are only the tools. God is the one who wins the victories. We can only let him use us to do it. When you are sharing with people, serving in a ministry, or even just being a light to your friends, it is God who does the work. What happens because of that work will be what God wills, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t go the way you wished it would. God will make sure the glory part happens in his timing.
Finally, we see the humanity of Moses. He knew he had sinned. He knew he was going to face those consequences. He had already turned over the authority to Joshua. Yet he probably still had some hope that God would change his mind. He faithfully served God and did it knowing that he had to pay the piper eventually. I still think he always had in the back of his mind that if he just served God well enough, God would change his mind. God isn’t like us. He doesn’t rationalize, change or do anything flighty. He is a God of purpose. Moses knew that, but in his humanity he still had hoped he would get to see the Promised Land. Moses was still trying to bargain with God even after all he’d seen. The thing is that I bet once he got up to Heaven and saw what honor there had been in dying alone with God and being buried by God himself, to be in direct communion with him, that is far better than any earthly promised land. Sometimes, we think our punishments are just to torture us, until we realize that the results of those trials are actually the greatest blessings we’ve ever known. Those are the moments I find myself praising God the loudest.
Okay, now our reading in Mark. Again we see the Jewish leaders wanting to take Jesus and kill him but they didn’t want to do it during the festival because they were afraid it would cause a riot and get them in trouble with the Romans. They wanted to do evil but they didn’t want to get caught.
The next section shows a lot about how people respond to Jesus. They are all enjoying a meal with Jesus. A woman comes in and anoints Jesus with very expensive oil. The scripture says it was expensive enough for a years wage for a family. She wanted to honor Jesus with all she had and more. She had probably understood what he’d been teaching lately of his leaving them. Some of them were not pleased at this though. They thought the money should be used differently and were angry that it hadn’t been used as they thought it should be. They criticized her. Jesus rebukes not the woman, but those attacking her. She did something good for Jesus. It was her choice. The poor are there and should be helped, but we should have choice over what we do. No one should tell us where we have to serve or what we have to do except for God. If someone doesn’t like the ministry you want to be involved in, or how you give your offerings (tithes are a different matter we will talk about another time) they need to realize that your stewardship is according to how God tells you it is. This is the passage I most think of when I hear people say that Jesus was a communist. To me, it clearly states right from the savior’s mouth that we are to choose how we serve God with our money. No one should dictate that for us or judge it either. We are all responsible for our own actions and choices.
At the end of this passage we see Judas make his choice. He was very concerned about the money and was unhappy about how it was being handled obviously. The way Jesus was talking, things were going to be much different than Judas had planned on. Now he was messing with the coffers that Judas had control of. He made a choice to betray Jesus because he didn’t like what was happening. My Bible posed an interesting question in the notes and I wanted to share it with you. “Do we respond to Jesus with outright rejection as did the leaders (v1, 2); with calculated self-interest as did Judas (v10, 11); or with an outpouring of our love as did the woman (v3-9)?” Where do you fall most of the time? Do you reject what Jesus wants for you and do whatever you want? Do you use your faith to get what you want when it is convenient, but really focus on what your desires are? Or do you show how much you love Jesus in everything you do? I think we all fall into each of this once in awhile. My prayer is that I can spend the majority of my time following in the footsteps of the woman.
Maundy Thursday is coming up. It is actually my favorite day of the year next to Christmas Eve. I became a Christian at a Maundy Thursday service in the dirt of a cleared cabbage field outside of Mexicali. I always enjoyed Maundy Thursday service as a child because to me, it was the most intimate time the disciples had with Jesus. They actually got to worship with him by conducting the highest ritual there was to the Jewish people. How amazing is that. Not only that, but they were present for the beginning of the new covenant between God and his creation. All that had gone before was now changed according to Christ’s new covenant with us. My family usually holds our own personal Passover Seder on this night to remember how Jesus changed the covenant. It reminds us of where Jesus was coming from and where he was taking us.
We have all heard about the communion story over and over I’m sure. But have we truly looked at what Jesus is saying? Jesus told them how to prepare everything and where to get it. He came and sat and ate with them. He was in complete control. He knew who was going to do what, where he was headed personally and what the result was going to be. Yet, he sat and had fellowship with them. He didn’t whine and cry, he didn’t sit there being depressed. He merely enjoyed his time of fellowship with them and took this time to teach them the last of what they needed to know. If they weren’t prepared at this point, which they weren’t, it wasn’t because Jesus hadn’t shared with them. This gives me hope. My whole life I grew up in the church hearing about Jesus, but I didn’t get it. I shared him with a lot of people over the years who didn’t get it either. Yet, I got it when I was supposed to. The disciples didn’t get it at the Last Supper either. My hero, Peter, even took one last chance to run his mouth and debate with Jesus. Lol Yet eventually, they got it. It took a lot of pain and heartache, but in joy they finally got it.
Can you imagine sitting there eating food with a friend and teacher and having him start talking the way Jesus did? Would you be listening intently or thinking “I think he had a little too much vino.”? Lol The Passover was about God delivering Israel. It was about redemption and reconnecting with God. Jesus was associating himself with that. He identified himself as the real Passover sacrifice that would completely redeem us and connect us to God perfectly. Those people who participate in this by choosing to believe in his sacrifice for our sins are part of this new covenant he speaks of. We are part of the true people of God, for eternity. Every time you take communion, you are making a statement that you want to be part of God’s family. When you leave that experience, you should remember that in how you conduct yourself. It isn’t just a light snack to fit in at church. It is a covenant between you and God. A promise you make to fulfill your end of the bargain to make him Lord of your life. He did his part. Now it is time to do yours.
This is getting really long, but I want to say one more thing about this reading. In the garden, Jesus had brought the disciples with him to the garden to pray. He took Peter, James and John with him a little further. I have been reading a book on John written by Beth Moore this week and the author said something I was really thinking about a lot. Jesus took those three with him a lot, and we take it as them being the favorites. Yet, she pointed out that teachers often bring the “troublesome” or “difficult” students to the front of the class to be able to guide them better. She is totally right. I never thought about the fact that we often hear those three getting it wrong in many stories of the Bible. They didn’t get it most of the time. Yet, Jesus knew that once they did get it, they would be unstoppable at spreading his kingdom. Here we see them missing out on some last minute time with Jesus. He asked them to pray with him, to help him prepare. Yet they slept. How awful must they have felt after the next 12 hours that they had not taken the chance to be with him when they could. How many regrets must they have had? This is a good lesson. They must have had more regrets than you and I could ever imagine. Yet, did that stop them? No. They reconciled to Christ and kept going with a renewed strength. We should take that example and run with it. When you mess up, pick yourself up, reconcile to Jesus and go at it double time. I am going to be trying to do the same.
Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 34-35.
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