Angel Confirms Direction for Jesus

Acknowledging God

Follow in My Ways

The Lord Will Provide

Luke 22:39-46 The Message

A Dark Night

39-40 Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, “Pray that you don’t give in to temptation.”
41-44 He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.
45-46 He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, “What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray, so you won’t give in to temptation.”

For Reflection

Let me not be lead into temptation. Deliver me from the evil of this world.  

Christ prayed, God heard and sent an angel to strengthen Jesus' resolve to accept the will of God.  Jesus violent death, the sacrifice of his body and blood, is a sign of salvation and redemption that he could not and would not evade. The Christ event is an invitation to participate with Christ in God's plan.  Jesus asks the disciples to pray so that they will not be seduced by the easy way of conforming to this world, but to take up His cross and face the potential to lose their old lives in their new lives in the last days.

Pray

Pray as Christ did.  Pray for the courage to obey God and follow the way of Jesus Christ.
Forward to a friend

Jesus Tested in the Wilderness

Acknowledging God

Follow in My Ways

The Lord Will Provide

Matthew 4:1-11 The Message

The Test

4 1-3 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”
5-6 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”
7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”
8-9 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”
10 Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”
11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

For Reflection

Let me not be lead into temptation. Deliver me from the evil of this world. Christ possessed all the power of God and was tempted to be corrupted by it.  Christ refused the seduction of self-aggrandizement. Christ stayed faithful to God's promise to reconcile humankind through the power of love. Christ defeats the idolatry of selfishness and embraces selflessness for the salvation of all people. Christ shows us how to exercise our freedom to choose righteousness.

Pray

Pray for the courage to forsake your self-centeredness for God-centeredness.

Forward to a friend

Don't Forget the Lord's Provisions

Acknowledging God

Follow in My Ways

The Lord Will Provide

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 The Message

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.
17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.
19-20 If you forget, forget God, your God, and start taking up with other gods, serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction. You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nations God is destroying before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice of God, your God.

For Reflection

God owns all that there is.  God has entrusted us with God's creation. We are the stewards of God's world. We own nothing but are responsible for managing God's resources. God intends for us to share God's resources equitably.  When Christ fed the 5000, he used what was available, blessed it, and gave it to the hungry crowd.  They fed until their hunger was satisfied and there was much left over.    
Have confidence in the promise of God.  Share God's largess, each getting what he or she needs so that no one goes without that which is necessary for security and comfort. Life in the Kingdom is not a zero-sum game where some build up their stores at another's expense.  The family of God is marked by compassion, grace and an equitable distribution of God's resources.

Pray

Pray for the poor in spirit so that they shall know the grace of God.  Pray for those whose lives are stunted by impoverishment so that they will have hope. Pray for the marginalized so that they may rest in the family of God.

Forward to a friend

Money, Root of Many Evils

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

The Good Fight of Faith

1 Timothy 6:9-10 The Message

9-10 But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.

For Reflection

There is no inherent evil or sin in money. There are some people who will always have more money than others.  There will always be some people who are destitute, having insufficient funds to survive a humane existence.  

The sin lies in the idolatry of money. The sin lies in the unwillingness to distribute the largess of a community equitably so that the least wealthy enjoy a human existence with sufficient access to material necessities.  The sin lies in the accumulation and worship of money at the expense of those whose human needs go unmet.

In the last supper and in the feeding of the 5000, Christ demonstrates that all we have belongs to God and we are God's stewards.  We are to take from God's largess, bless its use to the sustenance of humankind, divide, and distribute it equitably. Authentic Christians respond to the love and grace of God by feeding the poor and taking care of those who can not care for themselves. The authentic Christian's mission is to accept Christ's invitation to die to one's self-serving life and become resurrected to serve humankind to the honor of God.

Pray

Pray that you will act compassionately to all people sharing, God's largess as you are able.

Forward to a friend

Teach the Sound Words of Christ

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

The Good Fight of Faith

1 Timothy 6:2-8 The Message

6 1-2 Whoever is a slave must make the best of it, giving respect to his master so that outsiders don’t blame God and our teaching for his behavior. Slaves with Christian masters all the more so—their masters are really their beloved brothers!

The Lust for Money

2-5 These are the things I want you to teach and preach. If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction, tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. Eventually, there’s an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck.
6-8 A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.

For Reflection

The first two verses deserve a chapter of their own.  Suffice it to say, however, slavery was common. Christian slave masters and slaves faced some serious decisions.  Master and slave were considered equal in their Christianity.  There was then and is now no distinction before God. But, civility was to be maintained so that injustices would be eliminated. In this first century culture, the master was to serve the slave and the slave to serve the Master. The justice of this system was, of course, challenged and slavery is not acceptable in twenty-first-century culture.

The unique knowledge that a Christian possesses is a spiritual gift that encourages the Christian to pursue righteousness. This knowledge does not provide one with any particular privileges. The authentic Christian is so extremely rich in spirit that he or she rests in the peace and joy that only obedience to the Word can provide.  Anyone who claims other prosperities are false teachers. 

Pray

Pray so that you can pursue a righteous life in the hollow of God's hand. Pray for humility.  Pray for those whose lives are uninformed or misinformed by false teachers of the Word.

Timothy, Paul's Envoy to the Churches

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

The Good Fight of Faith

1 Thessalonians 3:1-10 The Message

3 1-2 So when we couldn’t stand being separated from you any longer and could find no way to visit you ourselves, we stayed in Athens and sent Timothy to get you up and about, cheering you on so you wouldn’t be discouraged by these hard times. He’s a brother and companion in the faith, God’s man in spreading the Message, preaching Christ.
3-5 Not that the troubles should come as any surprise to you. You’ve always known that we’re in for this kind of thing. It’s part of our calling. When we were with you, we made it quite clear that there was trouble ahead. And now that it’s happened, you know what it’s like. That’s why I couldn’t quit worrying; I had to know for myself how you were doing in the faith. I didn’t want the Tempter getting to you and tearing down everything we had built up together.
6-8 But now that Timothy is back, bringing this terrific report on your faith and love, we feel a lot better. It’s especially gratifying to know that you continue to think well of us, and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you! In the middle of our trouble and hard times here, just knowing how you’re doing keeps us going. Knowing that your faith is alive keeps us alive.
9-10 What would be an adequate thanksgiving to offer God for all the joy we experience before him because of you? We do what we can, praying away, night and day, asking for the bonus of seeing your faces again and doing what we can to help when your faith falters.

For Reflection

The persecutions of which Paul speaks were probably a result of the conversion of many Gentiles and Jews.  Familys may have been divided into Christian/non-christian camps.  Some of the conflicts certainly spilled into the civic life of the community as well. Some of the new Christians were tempted to return to the old patterns but Paul sends a message of confidence in the new church and comments on the success of Timothy to calm the waters. Paul recomends celebrations of thanksgiving and joy and reinforces the power of prayer.

Pray

Pray that you will accept the task of peace maker.  Pray so that your soul will guide you to help calm the stormy waters of conflicting agendas.

Forward to a friend

Timothy, a teacher in the manner of Christ

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

The Good Fight of Faith

1 Corinthians 4:14-21 The Message

14-16 I’m not writing all this as a neighborhood scold just to make you feel rotten. I’m writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God’s Message to you that I became your father. I’m not, you know, asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself.
17 This is why I sent Timothy to you earlier. He is also my dear son, and true to the Master. He will refresh your memory on the instructions I regularly give all the churches on the way of Christ.
18-20 I know there are some among you who are so full of themselves they never listen to anyone, let alone me. They don’t think I’ll ever show up in person. But I’ll be there sooner than you think, God willing, and then we’ll see if they’re full of anything but hot air. God’s Way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.
21 So how should I prepare to come to you? As a severe disciplinarian who makes you tow the mark? Or as a good friend and counselor who wants to share heart-to-heart with you? You decide.

For Reflection

How could one possibly miss the parallel in the relationships among Paul, Timothy, and the Church in Ephesus? Jesus has prepared Paul well. Paul, who regards Timothy as a son, sends him to teach in Ephesus. Further, Paul writes as a "father" chiding the people as God does, in love and sincere concern for their wellbeing. It is the model of spiritual leadership taught by Jesus and practiced by Paul.

Pray

Pray that you will act compassionately to all people. Pray so that you will be able to practice your God Story in the manner of Christ.

Forward to a friend

Timothy Joins Paul's Team

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

The Good Fight of Faith

Acts 16:1-5 The Message

A Dream Gave Paul His Map

16 1-3 Paul came first to Derbe, then Lystra. He found a disciple there by the name of Timothy, son of a devout Jewish mother and Greek father. Friends in Lystra and Iconium all said what a fine young man he was. Paul wanted to recruit him for their mission, but first took him aside and circumcised him so he wouldn’t offend the Jews who lived in those parts. They all knew that his father was Greek.
4-5 As they traveled from town to town, they presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with. That turned out to be most helpful. Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.

For Reflection

Well, All I can say is, "OUCH!" Timothy endured great pain and the potential for life-threatening surgery to become Pauls protege. Now, that's commitment!   Timothy's mother was a Jewish Christian and his father, a heathen, was Greek. Mixed marriages were common among the Jews in Ephesus.

Known for his piety, Timothy was to take charge of the church at Ephesus. Timothy's circumcision was necessary so that the Jews would accept him as a teacher. It was right that they would be taught by one of their own and selected to lead by a group of their own. It suited the nature of both God and man.

Pray

Pray for those who teach the Word.  Pray that those who hear the Word and are transformed by their understanding. Pray so that your trust in the Word grows deeper. Pray that your commitment to the Word grows stronger.

Forward to a friend

Aeneas Healed, Residents Turn to God

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

James 2:8-13 The Message

Acts 9:32-35 The Message

Tabitha

32-35 Peter went off on a mission to visit all the churches. In the course of his travels he arrived in Lydda and met with the believers there. He came across a man—his name was Aeneas—who had been in bed eight years paralyzed. Peter said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!” And he did it—jumped right out of bed. Everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him walking around and woke up to the fact that God was alive and active among them.

For Reflection

The Bible is filled with miraculous physical healings.  The failing of humankind is a desperate case.  This desperation is most visible when we are utterly without the strength to help ourselves.  It is then we turn to God.

We are quickly misled to assume that if we have the faith of Peter or Paul, we too could heal. Then when we fail to heal, we think we do not have sufficient faith.  We neglect to realize that they did not heal by their own power. Because Peter directed, Aeneas asked, and God gave. Physical healing is the sign that nothing is beyond the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, not even death.

As Peter instructed, we should use the power God gives us to foster, within our human limitations, spiritual and physical healing. 

Pray

Make your life a creative gift or healing grace.

Forward to a friend

Phillip's Preaching Ministry

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Acts 8:4-8 The Message

3-8 And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus. Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah. When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God’s action, they hung on his every word. Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way. And what joy in the city!

For Reflection

Some give their lives to teaching and proclaiming the Gospel.  For some, the Word is a threat, for others an invitation to salvation.

They were ordinary Christians, scattered by persecution. They engaged all with whom they met with the marvelous message that freed one from the hopelessness of their secular lives. They were not self-appointed public teachers or those who founded churches or those who administered baptism. Because their souls were full with the promise of the holy spirit, their authority was unquestioned.

Isn't it ironic that persecution was the very thing that promoted that which their persecutors wanted to destroy?

Pray

Locate your prayers in your willingness to pass on the hope in the Gospel to all who will listen. Pray not with your words alone, but also with your works.

Forward to a friend

Peter's Healing Ministry

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Acts 5:12-16 The Message

They All Met Regularly

12-16 Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.

For Reflection

Worshiping just outside the temple in what was known as Solomon's colonnade or porch, the new believers met regularly in in harmony. They were known as healers.They put their lives online to help the sick.
The sign of a Christian is his or her willingness to heal at all costs. It is the willingness to give one's life to healing that reveals one's conviction in the Holy Spirit. It is the authentic call to God's grace. It is the reason for being.

Pray

Pray that you will be known for your restorative grace.

Forward to a friend

Care for the Widows and Children

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

James 1:22-27 The Message

22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

For Reflection

Your religion is defined by what you say, but your faith is determined by what you do.  You say that you follow all the rules, yet you turn away from those that do not measure up.  You say you are blessed, yet you do not take the time to be a blessing to others. You say that you are humble, and yet you thank God that you are not like one of "THEM."

You say you are full of grace, and yet the secular world contaminates you. Look into your mirror with the eyes of Christ and become the person who Christ sees.

Pray

Look into your soul and fill it with the compassionate love for all of humankind.  Displace the notions of self with the convictions of the Holy Spirit.

Widow's Son Restored to Life

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

Faithful Disciples

1 Kings 17:17-24 The Message

17 Later on the woman’s son became sick. The sickness took a turn for the worse—and then he stopped breathing.
18 The woman said to Elijah, “Why did you ever show up here in the first place—a holy man barging in, exposing my sins, and killing my son?”
19-20 Elijah said, “Hand me your son.”
He then took him from her bosom, carried him up to the loft where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he prayed, “O God, my God, why have you brought this terrible thing on this widow who has opened her home to me? Why have you killed her son?”
21-23 Three times he stretched himself out full-length on the boy, praying with all his might, “God, my God, put breath back into this boy’s body!” God listened to Elijah’s prayer and put breath back into his body—he was alive! Elijah picked the boy up, carried him downstairs from the loft, and gave him to his mother. “Here’s your son,” said Elijah, “alive!”
24 The woman said to Elijah, “I see it all now—you are a holy man. When you speak, God speaks—a true word!”

For Reflection

Elijah met a woman at a well and as he was instructed by God, asked the woman for food.  Elijah ensured the woman that even in this famine, she would have sufficient food for him and her family.

Later, the woman's son died and she blamed Elijah for exposing her sins which lead to her son's death.  Elijah's prayers revived her son and the woman recognized Elijah's special relationship to God.

As God has done with this widow, God will take care of your physical needs and your spiritual needs.  As the widow, your trust in God will be confirmed by God's generosity. 

Pray

Prayer brings you closer to God and increases your trust in his generosity and grace.  Pray about all things and listen for God's whispered truths.

Forward to a friend

Say only Yes or No

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Matthew 5:33-37 The Message)

Empty Promises

33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

For Reflection

Our world is filled with empty promise.  Promises are expensive.  An idle promise compromises the faith you hold so dear.  A promise is not a tool to gain compliance.  It is a sign of your commitment to the love of God.  Do you really want to waste the grace of your faith by taking oaths you cannot or will not honor or failing to fulfill a promise

Pray

Pray that your word is known to be truthful and reliable.

Forward to a friend

Infants and Babies Speak

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Matthew 21:14-16 Amplified Bible 

14 And the blind and the lame came to Him in [the porticoes and courts of] the temple area, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful and miraculous things that Jesus had done, and heard the [a]boys who were shouting in [the porticoes and courts of] the temple [in praise and adoration], “Hosanna to the Son of David (the Messiah),” they became indignant 16 and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus replied to them, “Yes; have you never read [in the Scripture], ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared and provided praise for Yourself’?”

For Reflection

How holy, how sacred is the place of worship that it can not be disrupted by children? How does our intolerance of children's exuberance define our spirituality? Do we have to be reminded of our own youthful spiritual past?  If the truth were admitted, we were as disruptive as they may have been. (I know I was.) Because some were tolerant of my lack of disciplined worship, I thrived in the spiritual life of the church.  They gave me sanctuary and the freedom to grow into grace.

Pray

Pray for the children. Pray that you will uphold your baptismal vow to nurture their spiritual growth. Pray that you will not just tolerate their childishness, but embrace it and lead them into grace.

Forward to a friend

Judged by Your Words

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Luke 6:43-45 The Message

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

You are a giver of life.  In each day, in those with whom you cross paths, you can choose to encourage and support.  I am not talking about agreement. I am talking about you having the grace to do no harm, even when you disagree. 

Pray

Pray that your interactions with others is life affirming. Pray that others will see the grace in you and respond in grace.  Pray so that you can be in touch with the life giving Spirit that resides in your soul. Pray that the Holy Spirit dominates your drive toward graceful living.

Forward to a friend

Set a Guard over My Mouth

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Matthew 12:33-37 The Message

33 “If you grow a healthy tree, you’ll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you’ll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree.
34-37 “You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.

For Reflection

"Watch your mouth," my aunt used to say, "Remember who you are!"  Good advice for anyone, any age, any time, any where.  One can not un-say anything.  Words hurt.  One needs to judge well, but needs not to be judgmental.  The words you use indicate your spiritual maturity.  Your words either invite others to spiritual maturity or drive them into dark places.  Words are powerful. Use words wisely.

Pray

Pray that the words you use heal rather than harm.  Pray that the words you use bring others in to spiritual rest.

Forward to a friend

People live by God's Word

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

A Disciplined Faith

Deuteronomy 8:1-5  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.

For Reflection

"In the beginning was the word..." (John 1:1). God was known to the Jews only by the Word as sent by God's prophets. God was mysterious. God was unknowable except through the faith of those whom God chose to be God's people. God's word was always intended to show the world how to live. To become the most perfect human, one became obedient to that mysterious Word. God reinforced his Word with a love that protected, provided, encouraged obedience, and discouraged disobedience. God's will for a human existence of peace and equitable prosperity. God's people were free to choose obedience to the Word which would result in the perfection of humanity in the image of God.

Pray

Pray about all things so that you grow into the grace God has intended for you.

Forward to a friend

Spirit Comes though Faith, Not Law

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

Faith Without Works is Dead

Galatians 3:6-14 The Message

5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.
7-8 Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed in you.”
9-10 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.”
11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”
13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared, and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

For Reflection

We have all heard the whisper that warns us. We call that a conscience. It is the regulator, according to Feud, which censures our behavior. Some of us hear the whispers as counsel emanating from the Holy Spirit that resides within our souls. It is the element in our psyche that urges righteousness.  For an authentic Christian, it is the natural result of embracing the Holy Spirit and allowing the essence of Christ to dominate the desires of our souls. It is the loving God that invades our human experience in an explosion of Grace.

Pray

Give thanks for the love of God that counsels us and aims us toward righteousness.  Pray about all things so that you can be animated by the Holy Spirit,

Forward to a friend

Christ lives in Me

Faith in Action

Self-controlled, Upright and Godly Faith

Faith Without Works is Dead

Galatians 2:15-21 The Message

15-16 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.
17-18 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must, therefore, be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.
19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

For Reflection

We are in the process of becoming.  Because  we are made in the image of  God, we are complete. We have all the characteristics and skills that we need to mature toward perfection. Ultimately, in addition to the ability to grow, for in as much as we are free to choose, we can also excersize our will to improve in righteousness toward the example of Christ.

Obedience to the will of God is all that is needed.  Our progression toward human perfection is not a matter of rewards for "good action," or punishment for "untoward action" (sin). It is a progression toward maturity within the family of grace that is the Kingdom of God. As Jesus gave his being away, so shall we, who seek to be more Christ-like, give our being away to be present in God.

Pray

Pray so that you may become more Christ-like.  Pray so that you can mature into the fullness of the image of God.

Forward to a friend