The Father and I Are Working

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

John 5:9-18 The Message

8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”
11 But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”
12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.
14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”
15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus defended himself. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”
18 That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God.

For Reflection

This story illustrates not only the uselessness of the Sabbath rules it points out that the healed man was not only physically healed but spiritually healed as well. The warning that something unpleasant would happen was not that God would deliver death blows if the man returned to a life that separated him from God. It was that unpleasantness would be a natural result of beliefs or actions which were inconsistent with a loving relationship with God. 

It was not only from his physical infirmity that the man suffered and was healed.  He was also healed from his spiritual blindness. His infirmity was a part of his human condition. His spiritual infirmity resulted from his inability to see beyond his circumstance into God's intent for his life, his purpose for being. Jesus warns that the results of disturbing a right relationship with God are far more harmful than physical sufferings.

Pray

Pray so that you will be able to see beyond your corporeal existence into God's will for you in God's kingdom.

Forward to a friend

The Sabbath is for Merciful Acts

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Luke 14:1-6 The Message

14 1-3 One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move. Right before him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars and Pharisees present, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?”
4-6 They were silent. So he took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then he said, “Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath?” They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.

For Reflection

God created the Sabbath so that the people of God would rest from their physical labors and become refreshed.  It was a time for reflecting on the gifts of God, worship, and contemplation.  It was the one time in a busy schedule where believers could study, discuss, and listen for the Word.
Institutionalizing the practice brought various rules on how Sabbath activity was to be conducted.  These rules refocused the believers on the ritual of the Sabbath and bled attention from the intent of Sabbath.  One can follow the rules without thought and think that their righteous behavior guaranteed entry into God's Kingdom. This outcome is another example of how rules create an empty relationship with God, doing all the right stuff for the wrong reason.

Pray

Pray not out of fear but out of love.  Pray with your action. As you give to others, your also give to God.

Forward to a friend

 

Plucking Grain

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Deuteronomy 23:25 The Message

24-25 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want until you’re full, but you may not put any in your bucket or bag. And when you walk through the ripe grain of your neighbor, you may pick the heads of grain, but you may not swing your sickle there.

For Reflection

Following the law is often difficult.  Neither our laws nor the Mosaic law could fit every emerging circumstance.  The Scripture illustrates one of those "exceptions" to the Sabbath law. However, no matter how many rules we devise we cannot possibly foresee all circumstances which would challenge the veracity of the law.

That's why when asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, love. Acting out of the quality of love God shows to us, perfects us. Acing out of love gives us freedom from the letter of the law to follow the intent of God's law. When acting out of love without an expectation of a return, we give to others, and we give to God.

Pray

Pray to embrace God's love. Pray to extend that love to others. The act giving is a prayer to God.

Forward to a friend

 

The Lord Desires Mercy Not Sacrifice

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

Hosea 6:1-7 The Message

Gangs of Priests Assaulting Worshipers

6 1-3 “Come on, let’s go back to God.
    He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.
He hit us hard,
    but he’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
    By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new,
Alive and on our feet,
    fit to face him.
We’re ready to study God,
    eager for God-knowledge.
As sure as dawn breaks,
    so sure is his daily arrival.
He comes as rain comes,
    as spring rain refreshing the ground.”
4-7 “What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
    What do I make of you, Judah?
Your declarations of love last no longer
    than morning mist and predawn dew.
That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention,
    why my words cut you to the quick:
To wake you up to my judgment
    blazing like light.
I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.
    I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
You broke the covenant—just like Adam!
    You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches!

For Reflection

Like Adam, we broke our covenant with God. In doing so. We have difficulty seeing or knowing the will of God. We become so frustrated by a deep dissatisfaction with things as we think they are. It is then, with nothing satisfying to which to turn, we reach out to God.  God will then give us the opportunity to understand, to know the love, goodness, and mercy that is our God. Then we realize the suffering is of our own making and we begin to see beyond our human condition and into the will of God.

Pray

Pray prayers of confession. Ask God to ease your suffering and God will illuminate your path to salvation.  Pray and look for the opportunities God has given you and find in them the rest and peace that is yours.

Forward to a friend

Jesus, the People's High Priest Forever

Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 7:18-28 The Message

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.
20-22 The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise:
God gave his word;
    he won’t take it back:
“You’re the permanent priest.”
This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.
23-25 Earlier there were a lot of priests, for they died and had to be replaced. But Jesus’ priesthood is permanent. He’s there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.  Human priests were imperfect.  Christ has been perfected through his human existence so that we may have absolute confidence and trust in His priesthood.  Christ's authority extends from God to resolve the consequences of sin.

For Reflection

What is the blessing of having Jesus as the High Priest?  It means we have the most high-status representation of our humanity at the right hand of God. Christ intercedes for us. Because we are prone to sin, we can turn directly to Christ for forgiveness and the blessings of grace.

Pray

Confess your shortcomings to Jesus. Pray so that you will commit your life, sacrificially, to the will of God as revealed in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Forward to a friend

Jesus Destroys the Devil's Power

Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 2:14-18 The Message

14-15 Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18 It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.

For Reflection

I suppose that these passages beg for the definition of the Devil, or Satan.  In the earliest of Hebrew writings, neither God nor Satan were personified.  God was the symbol of the Creator and Satan was the symbol for the environmental seductions that appealed to the human egoism. As long as humans respond to the corporeal realities they interpret as truths, they will continue to box themselves into an existence of suffering at the hand of human folly and captives of human rationality.  Jesus has shown us that embracing the style and wisdom of God-centered living, frees humankind to make choices that are more in line with the will of God.

When one becomes frustrated with the consequences of one's life choices and perceives dissatisfaction in spite of the blessings one's choices have generated, that person will be ready for the God whispers that will free him or her. The idolatry of selfishness will die and in its place will be a reconciled soul-satisfying relationship with God.

Pray

Pray so that you will recognize the yearnings for satisfaction for what they are, a burning desire for a God-centered life.  Pray to find the opportunities to become a God collaborator.

Forward to a friend

Salvation Through Suffering

Give Praise to God

Remembering with Joy

Hebrews 2:10-13 The Message

10-13 It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.

For Reflection

What does it mean to be "perfected through suffering."  I suppose we could ask Job. What was it that Job understood after his suffering that he did not know before and with knowing, placed him at peace.
The short answer, but mysterious one, is that Job looked into the face of God and saw himself in a relationship with the Creation. Job may have understood that suffering is not penitence.

Quite the opposite, hard or easy sufferings spur our need to seek wisdom and understanding. Suffering is not bad but a natural phenomenon of living.  A man deeply suffers the loss of his wife who died after a long and painful illness. The man sees his own pain and wishes he would have died instead. If his wish to die before his wife were realized, his wish would transfer his suffering to his wife. Trading places does not free his wife from the pain of suffering his death. It merely ends the husband's pain.

God shows us the reality of the world in which we live and offers another perception. God asks us to set aside our negative opinion of suffering and instead look for the intent of God in the design of God's creation. Christ suffered a horrible death. But Christ yet lives. Where, indeed, is the sting of life and death.

Pray

Pray for those who suffer. Pray that they will be able to see past the human condition into God's intention that through suffering we grow into perfect harmony with God's creation.

Forward to a friend