Pleasing to God

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Right Attitudes

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 The Message

God-Taught

4 1-3 One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life.
Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.
4-5 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.
6-7 Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside.
8 If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
9-10 Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.
11-12 Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You’ve heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

For Reflection

All of humanity is divinely created. We are made in the image of God, endowed with creativity, and complete. Even those who deny their divine beginnings are capable of holiness if they so choose. Righteousness is not just a matter of doing the right thing. It is also a matter of having the moral will and skill to fulfill the holy purpose for which God intended.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to respond to the Christ that resides within your soul. Pray so that you can understand that each of us is a holy creation to be loved and respected no matter how we present ourselves.

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Do Not Judge

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Right Attitudes

Luke 6:37-45 The Message

37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”
39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.
41-42 “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

Work the Words into Your Life

43-45 “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

For Reflection

Judgment is necessary.  A human imperative is to observe and judge the levels of threat and promise in our lives.  Such action keeps us safe. All judgments are made in a specific time and space and circumstances with only that which is observed or disclosed by others. Such observations and inferences should be considered temporary, and the validity of such subject to change as new information emerges.

However, being judgemental is another matter.  Using such judgments in a pejorative way does nothing to advance the effectiveness of the community. We have been given the gift of creativity. Use that gift to help others see what they cannot see and develop healthy, supportive relationships among the human community.

Pray

Pray so that you will see not only the shortcomings of yourself and others. Pray so that you will develop the skill of creative, supportive ways of advising yourself and others regarding a path to righteousness. Pray so that you can become a messenger for healing.

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Moral Will

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Right Attitudes

Luke 6:17-23 The Message

You’re Blessed

17-21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:
You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning.
22-23 “Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb if you like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

For Reflection

If Jesus mission was not to replace Mosiac Law, how did he extend it? Perhaps the answer lies in the Sermon on the Mount where he explains the paradox of living the law. Here, Jesus explains the moral will and the natural outcomes of a compassionate life.

Those, so desperately encumbered by the burdens of life find Christ's overture to escape from their hopelessness in a new life freed from past transgressions.
Those who thirst for righteousness will find it in the revelations of the Gospel.
Those who trust in the Lord will emerge from their sufferings with joyous renewal.
Those who possess the moral courage to face injustice and suffer for it will find comfort in the peace that passes all understanding.

Pray

Pray for those who are desperate. Pray for those who doubt and find sustaining faith in the witness of all the saints who have preceded them. Pray for those who seek justice in an unjust world and suffer for it.

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Perfect God's Love

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Right Attitudes

1 John 4:7-21 The Message

God Is Love

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

For Reflection

Whenever we see things that offend our sense of justice, our first response often times is to make more rules and create incentives for following them.  But Jesus has shown us that there is no rule ever created by God or human that cannot be manipulated for untoward ends.  When the world places its faith in human determination, it collapses upon itself as we rationalize success and ignore the detrimental consequences of our incapacities.

The prophets warn us of the power of false prophecy and teaching by those who would twist God's will to fit personal ends. How can we say that we love God and act in immoral ways toward each other? How can we say we love Jesus and ignore those on the margins of well-being?

Rules are important, but having the moral will and skill to administer them wisely requires a divinely inspired love of all of the human race friend and foe.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to love as God loves.

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Wrongdoers

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches about Right Attitudes

Psalm 57 The Message

A David Psalm, When He Hid in a Cave from Saul

57 1-3 Be good to me, God—and now!
    I’ve run to you for dear life.
I’m hiding out under your wings
    until the hurricane blows over.
I call out to High God,
    the God who holds me together.
He sends orders from heaven and saves me,
    he humiliates those who kick me around.
God delivers generous love,
    he makes good on his word.
4 I find myself in a pride of lions
    who are wild for a taste of human flesh;
Their teeth are lances and arrows,
    their tongues are sharp daggers.
5 Soar high in the skies, O God!
    Cover the whole earth with your glory!
6 They booby-trapped my path;
    I thought I was dead and done for.
They dug a mantrap to catch me,
    and fell in headlong themselves.
7-8 I’m ready, God, so ready,
    ready from head to toe,
Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune:
    “Wake up, soul!
Wake up, harp! wake up, lute!
    Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!”
9-10 I’m thanking you, God, out loud in the streets,
    singing your praises in town and country.
The deeper your love, the higher it goes;
    every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.
11 Soar high in the skies, O God!
    Cover the whole earth with your glory!

For Reflection

How do you react to threatening circumstances? Do you strike out wildly or do back off and listen to God's assurance buried deep in your soul that eases your burden and follow a radical trust in the knowledge that God will make all things right?


David hides and waits for the calamity to pass. David trusts that he will receive divine protection. In great distress, he did not pray. " God exalt me."

David prayed, God, show yourself to be the supreme ruler. Spread your glory across the heavens and the Earth. David is confident that the tumult will end and God will make all things right.

Pray

Pray Not for your discomfort to end. Pray, instead, for God's glory to be known in your time of suffering. Pray not that you will escape your troubles. Pray that in your confidence that the will of God will be accomplished and you will be a witness to the living God.

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Union With Christ

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Hearts United in Love

Colossians 2:16-23 The Message

16-17 So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
18-19 Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath, and blood flow through us. He is the Head, and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
20-23 So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.

For Reflection

Who is an authentic Christian? Is it one that follows religion blindly? Luther, as did other reformers; Zwingli, Wesley, Calvin, Knox, Augustine, Pope Leo X, Thomas Moore, Ignatius of Loyola doubted religion but not God and helped us see God with new eyes in the changing worlds they faced.


The Christian faith has always been able to meet the spiritual circumstances of the time. Its evolution is a messy thing, but somehow, in the turmoil that change brings, God has revealed God's will and the Kingdom grows in ways more consistent with the life of Christ.

Pray

Pray and be willing to accept constant change into the likeness of God through Jesus.

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Paul's Ministry

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Hearts United in Love

Colossians 1:24-29 The Message 

24-25 I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
26-29 This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery, in a nutshell, is just this: Christ is in you, so, therefore, you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

For Reflection

We all suffer.  Suffering is part of the human condition.  For Saul, a staunch adherent to the Jewish religion,  the challenging Christ event spawned a dissonance that generated great fear. As a result, Saul suffered so much in his previous life he perceived Jesus as a threat and became an enemy of Jesus.His, transforming experience, however, removed the risk of change.Because as a believer in God's goodness and a follower of Jesus, now Paul was able to re-frame his suffering as an opportunity to witness to the saving Grace of God.

Face it! Would any of us submit to a dynamic change in our lives if it were not for the suffering (perceived harm) we experienced? Some of us answer our pain by stubborn reliance on what has worked unsuccessfully before, and the anguish continues.  Others, like Paul, will grasp a new way of being and understand the blessing that suffering brings.

Pray

Pray and transform suffering into a gift that will change your life into one of joy and peace.

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The Image of God

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Hearts United in Love

Colossians 1:15-20 The Message

Christ Holds It All Together

15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everythinggot started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

For Reflection

God created all of Creation and called it good! Jesus, the Christ, confirms that goodness. We, humans, are intended to live in harmony with the Creation.  Because made in the image of God, we are free to choose and not puppets of God, living in the symphony of Creation for us is a choice.  The dissonance of our lives is resolved in the harmony of God.

Pray

Pray and listen to the music of the Creation. Sing the harmonies of God. Play instruments of joy. Punctuate your life with the drumming of Justice. Trust in the composer of all things.

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The Source of Life

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Hearts United in Love

1 John 5:6-12 The Message

6-8 Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.
9-10 If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son.
11-12 This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.

For Reflection

There is no doubt in my belief that to know and understand the Christ event is a key to understanding the nature and will of God. 
However, I have always been (even as a teen) uncomfortable with the use of Jesus as a means to denigrate, demean, demonize and even foster violence toward those who do not follow Christ.  I have always believed who is "in" and who is "out" of God's favor is God's concern and not mine.

As a follower of Jesus, my task is to strive to emulate the life of Jesus. As of yet, I have not seen evidence of Jesus' manipulation of his divine being to abuse others or to use his perceived status as a God worshiper to coerce others into believing in anything. If anything, Jesus has reinforced God's intention that humans are free to choose in whom to place their trust.

Pray

Pray, and listen to the will of God whispered from the center of your soul, "Go forth and sin no more."  Show by your love the Grace of God.

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The Final Sacrifice for Sin

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

The New Covenant's Sacrifice

Hebrews 9:23-28 The Message

23-26 That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead, he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
27-28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.

For Reflection

Jesus sacrifice did not end sin. We, humans, still sin. Jesus sacrifice did not forgive sin.  God has always forgiven sin. Jesus offered his life to God as we should offer our lives.  Jesus has shown us the final solution to sin is for us to die to the impulse to commit idolatry.  The essence of sin is to worship anything other than God.

If we worship power, then we will stop at nothing to secure and retain control.  If we worship money, we will do anything to gain wealth.  If we worship ourselves, then we seek only self-serving ends.

If we worship God, then we will develop the character of God; creative, loving, forgiving, serving others as we expect to be served by God. By worshiping God, we seek the good in all things. By worshiping God, we reject self-determination and work as a God-confederate to establish the Kingdom that is the will of God. By worshiping God, we rest from the tempest of our lives and grow in Grace.

Pray

Pray so that your response to the sacrifice of Jesus will bring God's love, forgiveness, and Grace to all who interact with you.

The Time Has Come

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

The New Covenant's Sacrifice

Hebrews 9:1-10 The Message 

A Visible Parable

9 1-5 That first plan contained directions for worship and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it, a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.
6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.

For Reflection

Where now, in post-Jesus times, is the "Holy of Holies?"
We possess the "holy of holies" in our souls. God, through The Christ, has entered our souls which God has prepared in the Creation to accept the Holy Spirit. To access the power of God, we do not need intermediaries to speak and listen to the will of God. We, in these times, need only to commit to The Way of Christ, adopt the moral will of God, and pray.  

Pray

Pray so that you will develop the skills to do the will of God.  

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Unity in the Body of Christ

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Hearts United in Love

1 Peter 3:8-12 The Message

Suffering for Doing Good

8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things.

For Reflection

As a believer in Christ, you are a member of the household of God. As such, there is little need to be in theological lock-step. But because we follow Jesus, we should be: sympathetic, loving, compassionate, humble, and a blessing to all we encounter. We all should reject those things which do not reflect the goodness of our creation. 

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to; "say nothing evil or hurtful, snub evil and cultivate good, run after peace for all you’re worth."

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Jesus Blood

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

The New Covenants Sacrifice

Hebrews 10:19-25 The Message

Don’t Throw It All Away

19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.
22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Reflection

Blood sacrifices are not an essential component of modern God worship. In the time of Jesus, however, blood sacrifice was a necessary part of committing oneself or a group of people to obedience to God.

Today, we Christians substitute the sacrament of communion.  It is a symbolic reminder of Jesus, who offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross. Communion is a reminder of the extent to which we too sacrifice our lives to the will of God. Jesus blood sacrifice has shown us all that we no longer need animal sacrifices to become purified. Through Jesus, we have been shown that the curtain of the institutional priesthood is not necessary for us to commune with the living God.

Jesus is not the gatekeeper of the office of God. Instead, Jesus has shown us The Way so that we might escape our human condition and learn to love as God loves, forgive as God forgives, and to promote justice as God is just. Christ is the open door to the power and grace of God.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to forgive. Pray so that you will be more able to love.  Pray so that you will be juster,  acting in conformity to the will of God.
So you may grow in Grace, pray.

Redeemed and Purified

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

The New Covenants Sacrifice

Titus 2:11-15 The Message 

11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15 Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.

For Reflection

Grace is our objective.  Grace is our salvation.  Grace is our freedom from bondage to our human condition.  

Pray

Pray, offering yourself, sacrificing your obedience to the common human perceptions of self-determination and giving up your will for the will of God. Pray and grow into Grace.

Promise to Obey

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

The New Covenants Sacrifice

Exodus 24:3-8 The Message

3 So Moses went to the people and told them everything God had said—all the rules and regulations. They all answered in unison: “Everything God said, we’ll do.”
4-6 Then Moses wrote it all down, everything God had said. He got up early the next morning and built an Altar at the foot of the mountain using twelve pillar-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed young Israelite men to offer Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrifice Peace-Offerings of bulls. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls; the other half he threw against the Altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened. They said, “Everything God said, we’ll do. Yes, we’ll obey.”
8 Moses took the rest of the blood and threw it out over the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has made with you out of all these words I have spoken.”

For Reflection

Here's the question.  How good are you at promises?  How many have you made? How many have you kept? How many have you broken? In our commitments, we are sometimes inconsistent. God however never breaks a promise.  Even when we break the oaths we take to obey God, God keeps his promise.  God's blood, Jesus the Christ, is God's sign of everlasting divine fulfillment of the Promise of God.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to proclaim, "Everything God said, I will do."

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Rhythms of Grace

Living in Covenant

A Fulfilled Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

God's Wisdom

Matthew 11:28-30 The Message

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

For Reflection

God created us, and we are complete.  God fashioned us in the image of God, therefore we possess the capacities to love as God loves, forgive as God forgives, live creatively as God lives, experience the joy of our humanity as God does, live in service to others as God lives in service to us, protect the well-being of others as God protects our well-being, and preserve the freedom for others to choose righteousness as God has protected our freedom to chose to be God-centered.

God has placed the spark of The Christ inside our souls. Listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit and experience the "unforced rhythms of Grace."

Pray

Pray and be silent.  Listen for the unconventional wisdom of God. Pray and let the light of your soul penetrate the darkness of our times and illuminate The Christ that resides in the souls of others.

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Practical Wisdom

Wisdom

Learning to Become Wise

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

God's People Grow in Wisdom

Matthew 11:25-27 The Message

25-26 Abruptly, Jesus broke into prayer: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.”
27 Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.

For Reflection
Wise people have and use what Aristotle has called practical wisdom. First one must have moral will, having as one's first concern the good of others. This is the opposite of an ego-driven manipulative tactic where one only seeks what is good for him or her.  Such behavior involves doing something and expecting nothing in return.

The second requirement is moral skill. Righteous ends do not justify unrighteous means. Protecting one's right to choose is paramount. Coercion, manipulation, and other deceptive practices are never a moral skill. These are the means of false prophets and those who manipulate the Gospel for their personal gain.  

Neither is the promise of an external reward or punishment a moral skill. The reward for righteousness is inherent in the performance of righteous action, and punishment is a natural outcome of one's untoward works.  We are known by our fruits.

Pray

Pray so that you will always have as your first concern the well-being of others.  Pray so that you will develop Jesus-based moral skill that seeks justice through just means.  Pray so that you protect the right of others to choose righteousness as God protects your right to decide to become God-centered.

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God-wise

Wisdom

Learning to Become Wise

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

God's People Grow in Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 The Message

18-21 The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,
I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.
So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.
22-25 While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”

For Reflection

We are all tempted to take the easy way to justice. When confronting injustices, we tend to develop rule upon rule and incentives to motivate compliance. But this carrot on a stick or the promise of reward and punishment is coercive and not always effective.  "The truth is that there are no incentives that you can devise that are ever going to be smart enough. Any incentive system can be subverted by bad will."  (Barry Schwartz, TED Talk)

The only rule for righteousness is the rule of love. Follow Jesus whom Paul called "Christ, the wisdom of God. "(1 Corinthians 1:24)

Pray

Pray and the wisdom of God will light your way.  Pray and God will pave your way and give you courage to act God-wisely.

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The Unjust Manager

Wisdom

Learning to Become Wise

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

God's People Grow in Wisdom

Luke 16:1-9 The Message

The Story of the Crooked Manager

16 1-2 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3-4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8-9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”

For Reflection

Are you surprised at the rich man's assessment of the crooked manager? Well, me too. I doubt that Jesus was advocating such unethical behavior toward righteous ends. Matthew 11:25 points out, "At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth [I openly and joyfully acknowledge Your great wisdom], that You have hidden these things [these spiritual truths] from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants [to new believers, to those seeking God’s will and purpose]. (AMP)

If God's truth is hidden from the "street-wise," what is the meaning of praise for the crooked worker? Perhaps Jesus meant to point out that we Christians are not to react to life passively. We are not witless pawns satisfied to be compliant in the face of injustice. We have the creative capacity to counter injustice in "God-wise" ways.  Righteous ends require righteous means.

Pray

Pray and listen to the Christ that resides in your soul. Pray and marvel at the wisdom in you that is hidden from the worldly wise.

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The Wisdom of Solomon

Wisdom

God's People Grow in Wisdom

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

She Said, She Said

1 Kings 3:16-28 The Message

16-21 The very next thing, two prostitutes showed up before the king. The one woman said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. While we were living together, I had a baby. Three days after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone—there wasn’t anyone else in the house except for the two of us. The infant son of this woman died one night when she rolled over on him in her sleep. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son—I was sound asleep, mind you!—and put him at her breast and put her dead son at my breast. When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, herewas this dead baby! But when I looked at him in the morning light, I saw immediately that he wasn’t my baby.”
22 “Not so!” said the other woman. “The living one’s mine; the dead one’s yours.”
The first woman countered, “No! Your son’s the dead one; mine’s the living one.”
They went back and forth this way in front of the king.
23 The king said, “What are we to do? This woman says, ‘The living son is mine and the dead one is yours,’ and this woman says, ‘No, the dead one’s yours and the living one’s mine.’”
24 After a moment the king said, “Bring me a sword.” They brought the sword to the king.
25 Then he said, “Cut the living baby in two—give half to one and halfto the other.”
26 The real mother of the living baby was overcome with emotion for her son and said, “Oh no, master! Give her the whole baby alive; don’t kill him!”
But the other one said, “If I can’t have him, you can’t have him—cut away!”
27 The king gave his decision: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Nobody is going to kill this baby. She is the real mother.”
28 The word got around—everyone in Israel heard of the king’s judgment. They were all in awe of the king, realizing that it was God’s wisdom that enabled him to judge truly.

For Reflection

Who has not heard of the wisdom of Solomon? As described in 1 Kings 4:29-34. "God gave Solomon wisdom—the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts. There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn’t handle."

Here, Solomon faces an impossible task. "Who is telling the truth?"  He cannot ask the children, "Who do you love?"  There is no possible witness to testify one way or the other. So, Solomon uses the rule of love.

Do we actually know who the mother really is?  No. But giving the child to an unloving person would be tantamount to killing it.  Perhaps Solomon did not find out which of the women was the birth mother, but he gave the child to the woman who expressed love of the child.

Pray

Pray for wisdom that can only be derived by experiencing the divine love of God. 

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