January 9, 2015
What foundation is your life built upon? Your beliefs, your passions and loves, your pursuits… what is your guiding principle? On what basis have you built your house, your marriage, your parenting, your life? Jesus never promised that those who followed Him and built their life on Him would avoid life’s storms. But He did promise that when the storms come that they would be secure. Have you built your life on the Rock?
January 7, 2015
That which is called the “Lord’s Prayer” might rightly be called the Lord’s teaching prayer or model prayer, for He gives it to us to teach us how to pray. Even the order of the prayer should be considered as we learn to pray. Notice He teaches us to begin with God’s Name and holiness, then moves to request God’s will to take place above our own requests. We tend always to rush to our daily worries, bringing our laundry lists to God before recognizing Him in worship and asking for His will before ours. We see prayer as getting what we want from God, rather than God getting His will with us. Who should be changed by coming into God’s throne room? Do we inform God of needs we have of which He is unaware? No. He knows our deepest needs before we do. Jesus teaches us to pray in order to seek God’s face before seeking His hand. Having seen His face, we may even find our deepest needs already met there. Have you learned to pray to get with God, to see His face, to hear His voice, to be the one who is changed? Have you learned to pray “Thy” Kingdom come prayers, instead of “my” kingdom come ones?
January 5, 2015
This is the first of the Beatitudes in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Each one begins with the word, “Blessed” (Μακάριοι, Makarioi – blessed, happy, completely satisfied). This is not a state related to circumstance, but to God’s divine grace. Each one is also somewhat paradoxical or ironic, in that the recipient of the blessed state is not one usually considered so by the world. This is the world-turned-upside-down, Kingdom economy that Christ introduces. Here, the one who admits his spiritual poverty (“poor in spirit”), who confesses his sin and separation from God, this is the one who will be blessed by God giving him the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet, the opposite is also implied, that the one who thinks himself rich spiritually, already satisfied, this one will not enter the Kingdom. Are you spiritually hungry and impoverished in yourself? The recognition of this is a gift. Admitting your spiritual poverty apart from God is the first step into the blessed life.
January 4, 2015
Notice what Jesus didn’t say. He didn’t tell Peter and Andrew to work on applying their fishing skills to reaching men to see if they might qualify to be one of His disciples. He didn’t ask for their resumes or past accomplishments. He didn’t request proof of their bar mitzvah or rabbinic studies. He simply said, “Follow Me.” That’s it. If you can follow Me, “I will make you” what you need to be as my disciples. Many say they want to get their life in order first, clean things up and get organized, then follow Christ. But Peter and Andrew “immediately left their nets” and followed.
January 2, 2015
Some have asked why are there four gospels? The answer is uncertain, but clearly, each gospel has a unique perspective and purpose. Matthew shows us Jesus the King, Mark describes Him as Servant, Luke sees the Man, and John leads us to worship Jesus as God. In our Matthew reading today there are many references to “fulfilled” prophecies. Matthew is the most concerned to point these out to us. He clearly wrote to a Jewish audience and wanted to give them confidence that Jesus was the true Messiah and the rightful born King in the line of David. The lineage Matthew records in chapter one is to establish legal right to the throne through His adoptive father, Joseph (Whereas, Luke records Mary’s lineage, establishing Jesus’ biological connection to the house of David). In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is presented as a child living in a house in Bethlehem to which Magi bring Him gifts fit for a king (While in Luke, He is a lowly infant born in a manger). In Matthew 2:15, he quotes from the prophet Hosea (Hos.11:1) explaining His connection to Egypt. In Matthew chapter two alone there are four Messianic prophecies mentioned to point out how Christ fulfilled them.
Why did Matthew write His gospel? I believe the Spirit inspired him to organize his gospel, so that we might see Jesus as the One who fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy to be recognized as the Christ, the Son of David, the Son God and the King of Kings.
February 13, 2014
Between the four gospels, seven last sayings of Jesus are recorded. This is saying number six. Here, Jesus repeats David’s haunting words from Psalm 22:1. For the first time in eternity, fellowship between the Father and the Son is interrupted. Jesus who knew no sin, became our sin. Jesus who is the Life, took our death. Jesus the eternal Son of God, took our separation. So, we might receive His righteousness, life and sonship by believing in Him. What was Jesus’ seventh saying? “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus accomplished His mission for our salvation.
February 9, 2014
This is Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene the night before His trial and crucifixion. It’s one thing to follow God’s will into an unknown future, but quite another to obey with eyes wide open to suffering. Yet, this is what Jesus did. Oh, the love and obedience we see here! For the Lord drank that cup of suffering, swallowing all its bitter dregs of sin, separation and death. So that, we who believe on Him might receive His righteousness, sonship and eternal life.
February 7, 2014
This is from the Parable of the Talents. Matthew’s gospel has this parable arranged in alignment with Jesus’ discussion of end times in chapter 24 and nested between His Parable of the Ten Virgins and His discussion of the judgment of the sheep and goats. Its placement and the parable itself point to the idea that Jesus will return and expect an accounting of our stewardship. God has entrusted certain gifts and abilities to each of us that are to be invested and used. He cares about our work. He wants us to be busy using what He has entrusted to us. How we manage our 3 Ts (Time, Talent, and Treasure) matter to God.
February 5, 2014
Has the gospel yet been preached in the “whole world?” Not yet. But surely, the time is coming soon. According to Wycliffe, there are 6,900 languages spoken in the world today, as the world’s population approaches seven billion. Of those, 180 million people (who speak about 1900 different languages) do not have a Bible in their heart language, nor anyone that is currently working on one. All the major languages have been translated. The ones remaining are small population groups. Of course, Bible translation is only part of the equation. Someone still needs to preach the gospel so that they can hear and understand.
January 30, 2014
Jesus described the new Kingdom economy to His disciples. He modeled the new servant-leader paradigm by washing His disciples feet and then dying on the cross for our sins. To James and John, who aspired to leadership, He didn’t rebuke them, He showed them a better way. Jesus radically changed the leadership model. He descended to greatness.