Take Care against Being Tempted

Jesus' Fulfillment of Scripture
Jesus' Use of Scripture
Jesus Resists Temptation

Galatians 6:1-5

The Message

Nothing but the Cross

6 ^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

^4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

 
For Reflection

Live Creatively, be supportive.
Live Creatively, be humble.
Live Creatively, be forgiving.
Live Creatively, share burdens.

Live Creatively, work for justice.
Live Creatively, know yourself as a child of God.
Live Creatively, commit to the will of God.
Live Creatively, embrace the responsibility of your rebirth,

                           of your transformation,

                           of your evolving reconciliation to God.

LIVE CREATIVELY!

 

Pray

to live creative lives, to build rather than destroy, to love, to up-lift, and to heal.

Keep Watching and Praying

Jesus' Fulfillment of Scripture
Jesus' Use of Scripture
Jesus Resists Temptation

Matthew 26:36-41

The Message

^36-38 Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, “This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”
³⁹ Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?”
^40-41 When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

 
For Reflection

We all, at one time or another, wish that our suffering would end. Perhaps, in those times more than any others, we need the comforting companionship of friends,  Sometimes, like Peter, we are unaware of the need others have for a friend who will just be there.  And also like Peter we fail at that task.  Showing up in this case is not just half the battle it is the whole war.

 

Pray

that you will be aware of those in your path who need someone close.  Pray that you will show up.  Pray for those who need the healing comfort of God's presence and the presence of supportive friends.  Pray for the courage of friends who stand with you and all who are suffering.

Testing What Is in Your Heart

Jesus' Fulfillment of Scripture
Jesus' Use of Scripture
Jesus Resists Temptation

Deuteronomy 8:1-16

The Message

8 ^1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.

^6-9 So it’s paramount that you keep the commandments of God, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him. God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It’s a land where you’ll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.
¹⁰ After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you.
^11-16 Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,

the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness,
those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.

For Reflection

Each day we are confronted with new challenges.  Each day we are pressed into making judgments about our actions.  Each day we are witnesses to the Holy Spirit.  Each day we are hallowing God's name.  This daunting task is a privilege to suffer in the name of God.  This task is one we take on by free will.  This task requires that we remember who we are in the site of God.

 

Pray

Our Father who art in heaven, give me the courage, compassion and strength to hallow your name.  Pray that you will be an obedient, faithful steward in the Kingdom of God.

We Have Seen His Glory

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
From Suffering to Glory

John 1:10-18

The Message

^9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
    the world was there through him,
    and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
    but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
    who believed he was who he claimed
    and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
    their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
    not blood-begotten,
    not flesh-begotten,
    not sex-begotten.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish.

¹⁵ John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

^16-18 We all live off his generous bounty,
        gift after gift after gift.
    We got the basics from Moses,
        and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
    This endless knowing and understanding—
        all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
    No one has ever seen God,
        not so much as a glimpse.
    This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
        who exists at the very heart of the Father,
        has made him plain as day.

For Reflection

This is the story of God's passion for reconciling human kind to himself and to each other.  Believe and respond in confession, repentance, obedience, praise and thanksgiving.

Pray

Kneel before God.  Pray prayers of confession, repentance, obedience, praise and thanksgiving.  Pray to serve God.

Servant of All

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
From Suffering to Glory

Mark 9:30-37

The Message

^30-32 Leaving there, they went through Galilee. He didn’t want anyone to know their whereabouts, for he wanted to teach his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him. Three days after his murder, he will rise, alive.” They didn’t know what he was talking about, but were afraid to ask him about it.

So You Want First Place?

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was safe at home, he asked them, “What were you discussing on the road?”

³⁴ The silence was deafening—they had been arguing with one another over who among them was greatest.
³⁵ He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”
^36-37 He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me.”

For Reflection

Even the disciples didn't get it!  They did not understand that the death and resurrection of Christ would put an end to the common understand of power.  The way was not about power, but rather, control --control of one's self in ways that would avoid being seduced by power, in service to the Kingdom of God and as dependent on God as a child is dependent.  Nurturing as one would nurture a child.

Pray

pray that you will not seek power and position to enhance your vision of who you think you are.  Pray, rather, that you will humble yourself in service to the living God, seeking peace compassion and justice.

A Man of Suffering

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
From Suffering to Glory

Isaiah 52:13-53:6

The Message

It Was Our Pains He Carried

^13-15 “Just watch my servant blossom!
    Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd!
But he didn’t begin that way.
    At first everyone was appalled.
He didn’t even look human—
    a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,
    kings shocked into silence when they see him.
For what was unheard of they’ll see with their own eyes,
    what was unthinkable they’ll have right before them.”

53 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
    Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

^2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.

For Reflection

What more evidence do we need to understand the gravity of our sin?  When I, in my mind's eye, look broadly at the last week of Christ's life, the meaning of his murder is inescapable.  To look on God suffering on the cross because we were too fearful to give up self-centered for God-centered lives is the essence of the separation that God's overture to reconcile seeks to resolve.

Even today we distort the nature of sin and God's will to suit our needs; too fearful to go against the cultural grain.  It is the eternal struggle between the selfish and the selfless, the fearful and the fearless, the reconciled and the unreconciled, those enslaved to the dominant culture and those who fear God and, therefore, are free from the seduction of the dominant world culture.

Pray

Sit silently and meditate on the life, death and resurrection of God in Jesus Christ.  See yourself as one of those who called for the crucifixion -- see yourself as one who wept at Christ's death.  See yourself meeting the resurrected Christ. Offer your grief and sorrow to God.  Pledge yourself to a God centered life seeking the peace, compassion and justice violated by ignorance and the seductive power embedded in the cultures of our world.  Pray for the advancing Kingdom of God.

The Completion of God's Plan

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
From Suffering to Glory

Job 23:8-17

The Message

^8-9 “I travel East looking for him—I find no one;
    then West, but not a trace;
I go North, but he’s hidden his tracks;
    then South, but not even a glimpse.

^10-12 “But he knows where I am and what I’ve done.
    He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I’ll pass the test
        with honors.
I’ve followed him closely, my feet in his footprints,
    not once swerving from his way.
I’ve obeyed every word he’s spoken,
    and not just obeyed his advice—I’ve treasured it.

^13-17 “But he is singular and sovereign. Who can argue with him?
    He does what he wants, when he wants to.
He’ll complete in detail what he’s decided about me,
    and whatever else he determines to do.
Is it any wonder that I dread meeting him?
    Whenever I think about it, I get scared all over again.
God makes my heart sink!
    God Almighty gives me the shudders!
I’m completely in the dark,
    I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”

 
For Reflection

One of the keys to Job's persistent faith in a loving, compassionate, and healing god is his constant seeking to find God.  Our faith is strengthened by our search for the living God.  Even though it seems we are completely in the dark our search for truth in God is discovered.  Bit by bit our understanding improves.  Bit by bit we accept the grace of God.

 

Pray

that you will never abandon the search for the Living God.  Invite each new understanding to alter your life.  Pray that you will evolve into the center of God's will.

Seeking the Answer to Suffering

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
From Suffering to Glory

Job 23:1-7

The Message

Job’s Defense

I’m Completely in the Dark

23 ^1-7 Job replied:

“I’m not letting up—I’m standing my ground.
    My complaint is legitimate.
God has no right to treat me like this—
    it isn’t fair!
If I knew where on earth to find him,
    I’d go straight to him.
I’d lay my case before him face-to-face,
    give him all my arguments firsthand.
I’d find out exactly what he’s thinking,
    discover what’s going on in his head.
Do you think he’d dismiss me or bully me?
    No, he’d take me seriously.
He’d see a straight-living man standing before him;
    my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges.

For Reflection

To suffer is our human condition.  Some blame God.  Doing so reduces God to the original born loser!  If there is one thing we should have understood from the death of Jesus it is that we suffer and God suffers with us and at times, God suffers at our own hands.

Job does not blame God.  Job complains. Job takes God on in confidence that Job's suffering is not a result of his separation from God.  Job, in all his suffering never loses site of the healing hand of God.

Pray

for all those who suffer.  Pray for those who in service to God give comfort to those who suffer.  Offer your complaints to God.  Address your feelings of despair.  Express your confidence in the Lord working things out.  In the midst of pain, thank God for all your blessings.

Take up Your Cross

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
The Third Day

Matthew 16:24-28

New International Version

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.²⁸ “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

The Message

^24-26 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

 
For Reflection

The paradox in verses 25 and 26 (NIV) encapsulates the counter intuitive core of the Christian faith. The Message interpretation illuminates the will of God.

 

Pray

that you will forsake self-help for self-sacrifice.  Pray that you will put your soul in the hands of our risen lord.

God of the Living

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
The Third Day

Mark 12:18-27

The Message

Our Intimacies Will Be with God

^18-23 Some Sadducees, the party that denies any possibility of resurrection, came up and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and have children. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her. He died, and still no child. The same with the third. All seven took their turn, but no child. Finally the wife died. When they are raised at the resurrection, whose wife is she? All seven were her husband.”

^24-27 Jesus said, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know your Bibles; two, you don’t know how God works. After the dead are raised up, we’re past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You’re way, way off base.”

 
For Reflection

The mystery that is God.  God does not operate by humankind rules.  The bush is burning but not consumed.  The Son is dead and yet alive.  To God, time is not past present and future but now.  God lives in us, with us and through us in the eternal now.

 

Pray

Praise God for God's presence in our lives.  Praise God whose promise is eternally fulfilled.  Confess your humanity to God and bask in the glory of God's grace.

Received by God with Honor

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
The Third Day

Psalm 73:16-28

The Message

^15-20 If I’d have given in and talked like this,
    I would have betrayed your dear children.
Still, when I tried to figure it out,
    all I got was a splitting headache . . .
Until I entered the sanctuary of God.
    Then I saw the whole picture:
The slippery road you’ve put them on,
    with a final crash in a ditch of delusions.
In the blink of an eye, disaster!
    A blind curve in the dark, and—nightmare!
We wake up and rub our eyes. . . . Nothing.
    There’s nothing to them. And there never was.

^21-24 When I was beleaguered and bitter,
    totally consumed by envy,
I was totally ignorant, a dumb ox
    in your very presence.
I’m still in your presence,
    but you’ve taken my hand.
You wisely and tenderly lead me,
    and then you bless me.

^25-28 You’re all I want in heaven!
    You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
    God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
    Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
    oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
    God, I’m telling the world what you do!

For Reflection

Are we all destined to drive a slippery road on crash course into a ditch of delusions?  If not under the guiding hand of God, yes!  We are easily seduced by an illusion of self control, trying to face life alone.  Our few successes at self sufficiency obviate the number of failures.  Like a gambler, mindlessly pushing slot machine buttons, anticipating a payoff that never materializes, we place hope in ourselves.

Our only hope is in the loving, compassionate arms of God.

Pray

for the confidence in God's plan for your life in God's kingdom.  Pray for all who have found themselves by losing themselves in the presence of God.  Pray that you might sacrifice your self for a God self.

Ransomed From the Power of Death

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
The Third Day

Psalm 49:5-15

The Message

^5-6 So why should I fear in bad times,
    hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
    demeaned by the arrogant rich?

^7-9 Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
    pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
    and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
    against the Black Hole.

^10-11 Anyone can see that the brightest and best die,
    wiped out right along with fools and dunces.
They leave all their prowess behind,
    move into their new home, The Coffin,
The cemetery their permanent address.
    And to think they named counties after themselves!

¹² We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

^13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

For Reflection

The offense attacked and attacked again.  Fear gripping them to the core, "Defend to the death," the defenders cried, "Counter attack!"  Power against power, wealth against wealth.

Is this what life is, a constant never ending battle -- a descending death spiral -- or as E.L.Doctorow put it in his new novel, Andrew's Brain,  our "pathetic intention to survive.  Because, of course, [we] never do."

Christ has shown us the futility of capturing and commanding the material world. After all the threats, after all the bloodshed, after all the winning is done death ends it all.

Without God there is no survival.  Without God death is the end of life both physically and figuratively.

Pray

for the courage to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Pray to discover God's will for your life in the Kingdom.  Praise God for the risen Christ.

Death and Dispair

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the David Covenant
The Third Day

Job 30:20-31

The Message

What Did I Do to Deserve This?

^20-23 “I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer!
    I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare!
You’ve turned into my tormenter—
    you slap me around, knock me about.
You raised me up so I was riding high
    and then dropped me, and I crashed.
I know you’re determined to kill me,
    to put me six feet under.

^24-31 “What did I do to deserve this?
    Did I ever hit anyone who was calling for help?
Haven’t I wept for those who live a hard life,
    been heartsick over the lot of the poor?
But where did it get me?
    I expected good but evil showed up.
    I looked for light but darkness fell.
My stomach’s in a constant churning, never settles down.
    Each day confronts me with more suffering.
I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone.
    I stand in the congregation and protest.
I howl with the jackals,
    I hoot with the owls.
I’m black-and-blue all over,
    burning up with fever.
My fiddle plays nothing but the blues;
    my mouth harp wails laments.”

 
For Reflection

There are times in each of our lives when despair takes over.  We ask God, "Why me?"  Is our suffering a consequence of our own behavior?  Is it punishment for disobedience to God? The simple but unsatisfying answer is that we are human and suffering is the human condition. This answer does nothing to take away the pain. 

 It is not God's will that we suffer.  It is God's will that we seek comfort in his arms.  It is God's will that we find compassionate care in the kindnesses of others.  It is God's will that we, in spite of our troubles, find strength in the promise of God and the transforming healing power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Pray

Offer prayers and thanksgiving to the the living Lord who suffers as we suffer. Pray for all who suffer so that they may find peace in the healing power of Jesus name. Pray for those who provide compassionate care.

A Better Hope

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
A Messianic Priest-King

Hebrews 7:11-19

The Message

A Permanent Priesthood

^11-14 If the priesthood of Levi and Aaron, which provided the framework for the giving of the law, could really make people perfect, there wouldn’t have been need for a new priesthood like that of Melchizedek. But since it didn’t get the job done, there was a change of priesthood, which brought with it a radical new kind of law. There is no way of understanding this in terms of the old Levitical priesthood, which is why there is nothing in Jesus’ family tree connecting him with that priestly line.

^15-19 But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life—he lives!—“priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.” The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside; the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.

 
For Reflection

You can't legislate morality.   Neither can you dictate faith. Predicting all circumstances that might separate us from God is impossible.  Obedience to the will of God is not a grand computer processing challenge where all possibilities are known.  We live lives in a human realm where tomorrow is unknowable.

What is knowable, however, is the truth incarnate in the life of Jesus Christ and God's promised life in God's household.  Live by the code of God's love.

 

Pray

that you will follow God's will for us to transform our selves in the image of Jesus, talking the Way, and walking the Way.

The Kingdom of God's Beloved Son

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
A Messianic Priest-King

Colossians 1:9-14

The Message

^9-12 Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
^13-14 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

 
For Reflection

Paul prays for the church as we should pray for the church.  The church of Paul's time is not the church of our time.  The church has evolved and is evolving. It is not a static institution.  Reformation is the constant both in the church and in the lives of the faithful.  There must be a reason for what some researchers are calling a world- wide decline of religiosity.  Some suggest that God is preparing us for reformation.  I am not disturbed by the arguments that seem to divide the church.  On the contrary, I am encouraged by it. God will "rescue us from dead end alleys and dark dungeons."

 

Pray

for the church universal.  Pray that conflict will lead to change where God wills change.  Pray that you will be encouraged by evolution toward the Kingdom of God.

Seated on the Throne of Glory

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
A Messianic Priest-King

Matthew 19:23-30

The Message

^23-24 As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”
²⁵ The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?”
²⁶ Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”
²⁷ Then Peter chimed in, “We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?”
^28-30 Jesus replied, “Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

 
For Reflection

Entering the Kingdom of God is easy.  It is not a result of the amount of riches you possess.  It is not about how you act.  It's all about what guides your life.  It's about giving up your SELF, (Who you think you are), and adopting your Godself.  In doing so, your obedience to the will of God will transform the world.  You will be the God's agent of change.

 

Pray

that you will follow God's will for God's creation.  Pray that when the hard choices come you will be prepared to choose those which are aligned with God's will for humility, peace, compassion, and justice.

Light has Dawned

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
A Messianic Priest-King

Matthew 4:12-17

The Message

Teaching and Healing

^12-17 When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s sermon:

Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    road to the sea, over Jordan,
    Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
    saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
    they watched the sun come up.

This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

 
For Reflection

Don't you sometimes wish time travel could take you to the time of Christ?   I wonder what we would think about the terror of those times?    Imagine, for a moment, that you are there.  Imagine your life in a loving family encased in poverty, hopeless politics both in the faith and in government your only hope is in the promise to David that in over a thousand years has not yet been fulfilled.

To be baptized by John and to hear Jesus teach and see Jesus heal might be a far different experience from reading poetic biblical descriptions in the comfort of our homes.  And yet, today, Many prefer to sit in the dark, having experienced the sun.

 

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving for the living God.  Pray that those who have seen the sun believe and throw off the cloak of darkness that sully their lives.  Pray that all who live in the light of the Son have the courage and compassion to serve into the dark. 

An Established Throne Forever

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
A Messianic Priest-King

1 Chronicles 17:7-14

The Message

^7-10 “So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you; and now I’m about to make you famous, ranked with the great names on earth. I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around anymore; nor will evil nations afflict them as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. And finally, I’m going to conquer all your enemies.
^10-14 “And now I’m telling you this: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child to succeed you, a child from your own body, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule forever. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. I will never remove my gracious love from him as I did from the one who preceded you. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will always be there, rock solid.”

For Reflection

This is it, a one-way covenant, a promise, without strings, that is extended not only to the House of David, but also, through Christ, a promise to all.  Made by God, a promise never violated, no matter what.

Pray

prayers of gratefulness and thanksgiving. Sing songs of praise.  Take comfort in the hope of Gods promise to his creation and pray for obedience to God's will.

A Holy Temple in the Lord

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Ephesians 2:11-22

The Message

^11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
^14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
^16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
^19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

 
For Reflection

Well, that's pretty clear.  It is a invitation to come home to the household of God.  An invitation extended to all to give up selfishness and become a steward of God's creation.

 

Pray

that you will fulfill God's will to become a faithful, obedient and compassionate steward of God's creation.  Pray for those people whom have not been exposed to the enlightenment of God's will.  Pray for those who have heard but rejected the call of God.

Something Greater than the Temple

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Matthew 12:1-8

The Message

In Charge of the Sabbath

12 ^1-2 One Sabbath, Jesus was strolling with his disciples through a field of ripe grain. Hungry, the disciples were pulling off the heads of grain and munching on them. Some Pharisees reported them to Jesus: “Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules!”

^3-5 Jesus said, “Really? Didn’t you ever read what David and his companions did when they were hungry, how they entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? And didn’t you ever read in God’s Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it’s not held against them?
^6-8 “There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual’—you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

 
For Reflection

Christianity rarely seems to be a single religion.  The variations in interpretation, dogma, ritual and faith are widely divergent across denominations with many intrademonimational variances.  I think it would be well to remember Jesus reference and adopt " a flexible heart".  While Christians worship God and believe in Christ as the son of God and the prime example for practicing Christianity, we tend to inflate and bolster the differences  in denominational tenets and nitpick; forgetting that, as stewards of the Kingdom of God, compassion, forgiveness, and justice is paramount.  Love guides action.

 

Pray

that you will live as Christ loved.  Pray for the unity of the church.  Pray for all who profess Christian faith, that they will remain obedient to God's will for living a life engrossed in compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.

I Cried for Help

What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus and the Davidic Covenant
Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Psalm 18:1-6

The Message

A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul

18 ^1-2 I love you, God—
    you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
    the castle in which I live,
    my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
    where I run for dear life,
    hiding behind the boulders,
    safe in the granite hideout.

³ I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
    and find myself safe and saved.

^4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
    devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
    death traps barred every exit.

⁶ A hostile world! I call to God,
    I cry to God to help me.
From his palace he hears my call;
    my cry brings me right into his presence—
    a private audience!

For Reflection

Some times it seems that you are fighting a losing battle.  A battle, as David proclaims, in which there is little opportunity to survive and waning hope.  It is during those times when despair is knocking loudly at your door you remember God's covenant with you and God hears your torment. Your prayer is a "private audience" in the presence of God.  God listens.  God acts on your behalf.

Pray

Pray to the God who has blessed you with grace.  Confess your need for salvation from your current woes.  Praise God for his protection and his healing power. Cry for help.

The House of the Lord

Jesus' Fulfillment of Scripture
What the Prophets Foretold
Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Psalm 27:1-5

The Message

A David Psalm

27 Light, space, zest—
    that’s God!
So, with him on my side I’m fearless,
    afraid of no one and nothing.

²     When vandal hordes ride down
    ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
    fall flat on their faces.

³ When besieged,
    I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
    I’m collected and cool.

⁴ I’m asking God for one thing,
    only one thing:
To live with him in his house
    my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
    I’ll study at his feet.

⁵ That’s the only quiet, secure place
    in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway,
    far from the buzz of traffic.

For Reflection

As a child, I spent many hours alone on a rock outcropping overlooking a favorite dell with my PB&J sandwich and Pepsi lovingly prepared by my aunt. 

Well, I say "dell".  It was actually a space carved by strip mining and grown over.  The ledge was cantilevered over a small stream which ran through the area and into a sulfur laden creek. Sitting at the edge with feet dangling high above that weedy trough, I could dream of becoming greater than I was.  It was my sanctuary, "a perfect getaway from the buzz of traffic" in my life. If I romanticize my memory, I might say that I was living in the house of God and studying at God's feet, a vision that warms this old heart. 

Pray

Pray that you will find, as I have, a sanctuary in God's household.