Day 5! Matthew 10-12
Matthew 10.
The Commissioned! Jesus turns twelve disciples into Apostles. The Greek word here is different, it is the plural form of apostolos, it is only found here in Matthew. It marks these 12 as special representatives of God, that Greek root appears no where else. These were Jesus' core, they were His leadership team.
Jesus sets the bar for healthy leadership! He shows us how to be build successful churches, businesses, and lives! Want to know if leadership is healthy in any organization? Look for diversity! Look at the 12 Jesus choose, fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, a doctor. Jesus built a team of men from different backgrounds, different occupations, different perspectives, why?
As Jesus sends them He says have no fear, for not even a single sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father. And are you not more valuable than a sparrow? God has an incredible love for us! And Jesus put this gem in the middle of verses talking about the great adversity that will come as a response to following Him. It will not be easy but we are not to worry.
Matthew 11.
Jesus still seems to have not discovered the teaching about the blessing of prosperity involved with being one of His followers. At the beginning of this chapter we see John the Baptist back on the scene. He finds himself in prison for not conforming to the ways of society (vs. 17) And from prison we see John now questioning Jesus. He says are you the one we were waiting for or should we expect another? Fair enough question, after all John was obedient. Jesus even said of John, of men born of women there is none greater. So why is he in prison and not out flourishing financially and in ministry?
Look at Jesus' response to John's question; the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raise up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Jesus quotes prophesy from Isaiah to John, saying that He is the great I AM. Interesting enough though Jesus lets out one, the prophesy that He will proclaim freedom to the captives.
Could Jesus be saying, I am still the great I am, even though your current situation is not going to change? In fact it not only is not going to change it's going to get worse! God absolutely will bless us, and He says He gives good gifts. But the fear would be that we have isolated those verses of promise to provide comfort for ourselves. How do you think John the Baptist would feel about some of our self help and self promotion mentalities that we have cast onto the Word?
Matthew 12
In Jesus' teaching about how a house divided can not stand we see Him make an impressive statement that demonstrates His authority. In verse 29,Jesus says "how can someone enter a strong man' house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?" Jesus is saying I was able expel the demons because I bound the strong man(Satan)! This started with Jesus' victory over Satan during the temptation in the wilderness that we read about earlier. Jesus demonstrated that Satan was powerless to prevent Him from proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and demonstrating the reality of its presence.
Happy reading!
Friday, February 22, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Huh...Help...Hooray!
Day 4! Matthew 8&9.
Huh? What did He say?
Man what happened to prosperity? Jesus apparently didn't know how to get people to follow Him, like we do today! If only He could have looked ahead 2000 years, He would have been able to speak a much clearer relevant message to the scribe and the disciple in Chapter 8:19-22..."Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." Did Jesus really just tell the scribe that He was homeless? Certainly Jesus can not be implying that to follow Him may mean that the Scribe wouldn't even be guaranteed the most basic of daily comforts?
Then Jesus gets really bold as a disciples says, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." And Jesus told him, "Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead." Is Jesus saying that following Him could mean that our family is no longer the main priority of our existence?
What? For many that could be quite a shock! That doesn't exactly line up with some of the reasons we are encouraged to follow Jesus. I am glad that we are only at the beginning of these 4 books! There is plenty of time for Jesus to soften up with His demands for His followers! Keep reading!
HELP!
8:25- I love this text! It's encouraging to find out that I am not the only idiot with short term memory loss to follow Jesus. Think about all the we have read so far, and the disciples saw it all first hand, the miracles, the power of Jesus, how awesome that must have been. With that in mind look what happens the first time they face danger. They freak out like a bunch of Jr. high girls at a haunted house! They start yelling we are going to die. I love it. I am encouraged that I am not the only person who can in one moment be marveling at the awesomeness of God and in an instance lack any faith that things will work out!
Matthew 9
verse 11. We see Jesus ruffling the feathers of the Pharisees. The Pharisees see Jesus hanging out with sinners and question why He would associate with them. We know that the Pharisees would continue to struggle with this. I can't help but be curious how much of this was rooted in pride. I mean after all they were the good church people. They had devoted their life to the church shouldn't Jesus be rewarding them? Shouldn't He be spending His time with them in the temple. Surely this is not the Messiah because He is associating with people we have forbidden in our temples! If Jesus were to come in the form of a man today, where would we find Him?
HOORAY!!
We see a genuine response to meeting the Savior in verse 31. Jesus has just healed two blind men, and has told them not to tell anyone. "But when the men left, they told everyone in the area they met what had happened." These men illustrated that when you encounter Christ nothing is the same and you can't help but telling everyone about your encounter. We will see this again and again. You don't find anyone who had an encounter and went ssh, that's personal! It changed their lives and they talked about it!
When Jesus saw the crowds He had compassion on them! They seemed like lost sheep without a shepherd. Jesus was moved with compassion to act! He wants us to do the same, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field." What would the impact be if we stopped simply praying for God to motivate and send other people and instead asked Him to fill OUR hearts with compassion and said send ME?
Huh? What did He say?
Man what happened to prosperity? Jesus apparently didn't know how to get people to follow Him, like we do today! If only He could have looked ahead 2000 years, He would have been able to speak a much clearer relevant message to the scribe and the disciple in Chapter 8:19-22..."Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." Did Jesus really just tell the scribe that He was homeless? Certainly Jesus can not be implying that to follow Him may mean that the Scribe wouldn't even be guaranteed the most basic of daily comforts?
Then Jesus gets really bold as a disciples says, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." And Jesus told him, "Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead." Is Jesus saying that following Him could mean that our family is no longer the main priority of our existence?
What? For many that could be quite a shock! That doesn't exactly line up with some of the reasons we are encouraged to follow Jesus. I am glad that we are only at the beginning of these 4 books! There is plenty of time for Jesus to soften up with His demands for His followers! Keep reading!
HELP!
8:25- I love this text! It's encouraging to find out that I am not the only idiot with short term memory loss to follow Jesus. Think about all the we have read so far, and the disciples saw it all first hand, the miracles, the power of Jesus, how awesome that must have been. With that in mind look what happens the first time they face danger. They freak out like a bunch of Jr. high girls at a haunted house! They start yelling we are going to die. I love it. I am encouraged that I am not the only person who can in one moment be marveling at the awesomeness of God and in an instance lack any faith that things will work out!
Matthew 9
verse 11. We see Jesus ruffling the feathers of the Pharisees. The Pharisees see Jesus hanging out with sinners and question why He would associate with them. We know that the Pharisees would continue to struggle with this. I can't help but be curious how much of this was rooted in pride. I mean after all they were the good church people. They had devoted their life to the church shouldn't Jesus be rewarding them? Shouldn't He be spending His time with them in the temple. Surely this is not the Messiah because He is associating with people we have forbidden in our temples! If Jesus were to come in the form of a man today, where would we find Him?
HOORAY!!
We see a genuine response to meeting the Savior in verse 31. Jesus has just healed two blind men, and has told them not to tell anyone. "But when the men left, they told everyone in the area they met what had happened." These men illustrated that when you encounter Christ nothing is the same and you can't help but telling everyone about your encounter. We will see this again and again. You don't find anyone who had an encounter and went ssh, that's personal! It changed their lives and they talked about it!
When Jesus saw the crowds He had compassion on them! They seemed like lost sheep without a shepherd. Jesus was moved with compassion to act! He wants us to do the same, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field." What would the impact be if we stopped simply praying for God to motivate and send other people and instead asked Him to fill OUR hearts with compassion and said send ME?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Day 3...Culture...Pride
Day 3! Hopefully you are still reading along in the Gospels and considering what you are going to do differently for the remainder of the Lent season.
Today's reading is Matthew 5 thru 7. There is to much to talk about in this text,there is no way to do it justice in a few paragraphs. Here we have the greatest sermon ever preached! At this point Jesus has called His disciples and has been teaching, healing, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and great crowds are now following Him. Chapter 5 picks up with Him seated on a mountain and beginning to teach.
Matthew 5
The sermon starts with 9 statements known as the Beatitudes. These short statements really summarize the nature of everything Jesus is going to say in the coming message. These statements would be similar to church handouts or bulletins. They highlight the heart behind the words that are going to follow.
Verses 13-16- Jesus refers to His followers as salt and light. For time sake I am not going to explain, but do a study on both salt and light. It is amazing what they do! They both literally change environments! We are not called to an existence of survival! We are to be vessels representing Christ's glory that can not help but change the environments around us!
Matthew 6
We see Jesus calling out the same cultural Christianity issues as John the Baptist. "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from you Father who is in heaven." Don't give to the needy in order to be seen, don't pray in order to be seen or heard by others. Righteousness occurs when you come into the presence of the Father, not through anything that man can offer!
We also get introduced to something Jesus will expound upon many times in future teachings and conversations! We see we can not be a slave to anything but Jesus, not money, not worry, nor anything else. Our heart will be where our treasure is found!
Matthew 7
Unfortunately it seems that Christians would just prefer to forget this text or use it way out of context! It seems we either want to have strong opinions about everything and judge everyone according to our standards. Or we want to say that we are not ever to evaluate or judge others and we defend ourselves with that. WHAT JESUS IS RULING OUT IS PRIDE, WE ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT VIEW OURSELVES AS BETTER THAN OTHERS!
And this sermon ends with a call that cultural Christianity and lip service are not what offers salvation! A verbal confession of Jesus as Lord does not always indicate a repentant heart! We need to be doers of the WORD!
Today's reading is Matthew 5 thru 7. There is to much to talk about in this text,there is no way to do it justice in a few paragraphs. Here we have the greatest sermon ever preached! At this point Jesus has called His disciples and has been teaching, healing, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and great crowds are now following Him. Chapter 5 picks up with Him seated on a mountain and beginning to teach.
Matthew 5
The sermon starts with 9 statements known as the Beatitudes. These short statements really summarize the nature of everything Jesus is going to say in the coming message. These statements would be similar to church handouts or bulletins. They highlight the heart behind the words that are going to follow.
Verses 13-16- Jesus refers to His followers as salt and light. For time sake I am not going to explain, but do a study on both salt and light. It is amazing what they do! They both literally change environments! We are not called to an existence of survival! We are to be vessels representing Christ's glory that can not help but change the environments around us!
Matthew 6
We see Jesus calling out the same cultural Christianity issues as John the Baptist. "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from you Father who is in heaven." Don't give to the needy in order to be seen, don't pray in order to be seen or heard by others. Righteousness occurs when you come into the presence of the Father, not through anything that man can offer!
We also get introduced to something Jesus will expound upon many times in future teachings and conversations! We see we can not be a slave to anything but Jesus, not money, not worry, nor anything else. Our heart will be where our treasure is found!
Matthew 7
Unfortunately it seems that Christians would just prefer to forget this text or use it way out of context! It seems we either want to have strong opinions about everything and judge everyone according to our standards. Or we want to say that we are not ever to evaluate or judge others and we defend ourselves with that. WHAT JESUS IS RULING OUT IS PRIDE, WE ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT VIEW OURSELVES AS BETTER THAN OTHERS!
And this sermon ends with a call that cultural Christianity and lip service are not what offers salvation! A verbal confession of Jesus as Lord does not always indicate a repentant heart! We need to be doers of the WORD!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Day 2...Outcast...Savior
Day 2 of our Lenten reading through the Gospels in 40 days. Hopefully today you joined me in reading Matthew 3&4. One of my favorite men in the Bible is introduced in Matthew 3.
Matthew 3
In chapter 1 we saw that God uses the unlikely for His purposes. Again in chapter 3 we see God's handiwork in the life of an outcast, a rebel, simply put John the Baptist was one strange dude! He was all around eccentric. John wore the cloths of an outcast from a poor nomadic tribe. He rocked his camel hair clock and leather belt, and dined on such delicacies as locusts and honey! Here's the deal John was the man chosen by God to usher in the Messiah, and he fit none of the standards of society! John was not a deacon, an elder, an usher, or any other pew filler. John didn't own Sunday bests nor was he poetic and politically correct with his words.
In fact John called out cultural Christianity! He called those associated with the temple children of serpents! He drilled in on the fact that being a member of church meant nothing and attending church to be pleasing to God so you could avoid the coming wrath was asinine. John represented what Christ would call His followers to do, break free from humanity's call to comfort and status quo! John prepares the way for Jesus to challenge those who wanted to follow Him to confront their expectations and assumptions! It's a radical call!
Matthew 4
First of all we see Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. This corresponds with Israels experience of 40 years of testing in the wilderness. The difference Jesus endured His testing triumphantly and obediently. Here's the deal. How many times have you known where you needed to be, you knew what the future was going to hold and you looked for every short cut possible to get there? We are trained early on to take the path of least resistance and to pursue instant gratification. Look what Satan does in his last ditch effort to make the Messiah stumble, "the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "all these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Satan tries to give Jesus a shortcut to His future reign. This shortcut would allow Jesus to avoid all that would come on the cross. All He had to do was exchange the love of the father for the worship of Satan. All these I will give you was a lie. Often we want the shortcut or the easier path but it's all a lie. The only plan the will get us to our final destination is the plan laid out by the Creator of the Universe!
Also, Jesus can not simply be a good teacher, a good communicator, a prophet, or any other title that those who don't acknowledge Him as the ONLY WAY give! If He was just another religious man who walked the earth and did some pretty impressive teaching then He is also a liar. Jesus can not be both! He either was and is the one true God or He was a liar. Look what He says in Matthew 4:17 "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
God and the entire kingdom of heaven enters humanity in the person of Jesus! This is His first public proclamation of His identity and if it is not true than nothing that follows has any significance.
Matthew 3
In chapter 1 we saw that God uses the unlikely for His purposes. Again in chapter 3 we see God's handiwork in the life of an outcast, a rebel, simply put John the Baptist was one strange dude! He was all around eccentric. John wore the cloths of an outcast from a poor nomadic tribe. He rocked his camel hair clock and leather belt, and dined on such delicacies as locusts and honey! Here's the deal John was the man chosen by God to usher in the Messiah, and he fit none of the standards of society! John was not a deacon, an elder, an usher, or any other pew filler. John didn't own Sunday bests nor was he poetic and politically correct with his words.
In fact John called out cultural Christianity! He called those associated with the temple children of serpents! He drilled in on the fact that being a member of church meant nothing and attending church to be pleasing to God so you could avoid the coming wrath was asinine. John represented what Christ would call His followers to do, break free from humanity's call to comfort and status quo! John prepares the way for Jesus to challenge those who wanted to follow Him to confront their expectations and assumptions! It's a radical call!
Matthew 4
First of all we see Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. This corresponds with Israels experience of 40 years of testing in the wilderness. The difference Jesus endured His testing triumphantly and obediently. Here's the deal. How many times have you known where you needed to be, you knew what the future was going to hold and you looked for every short cut possible to get there? We are trained early on to take the path of least resistance and to pursue instant gratification. Look what Satan does in his last ditch effort to make the Messiah stumble, "the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "all these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Satan tries to give Jesus a shortcut to His future reign. This shortcut would allow Jesus to avoid all that would come on the cross. All He had to do was exchange the love of the father for the worship of Satan. All these I will give you was a lie. Often we want the shortcut or the easier path but it's all a lie. The only plan the will get us to our final destination is the plan laid out by the Creator of the Universe!
Also, Jesus can not simply be a good teacher, a good communicator, a prophet, or any other title that those who don't acknowledge Him as the ONLY WAY give! If He was just another religious man who walked the earth and did some pretty impressive teaching then He is also a liar. Jesus can not be both! He either was and is the one true God or He was a liar. Look what He says in Matthew 4:17 "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
God and the entire kingdom of heaven enters humanity in the person of Jesus! This is His first public proclamation of His identity and if it is not true than nothing that follows has any significance.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Lent...Facebook...Time
Hello Everyone!
As many of you know I have decided to give up Facebook during this Lent season. I did this to allow more time for things I feel really important! Jesus, family, and now writing! Starting today I am also reading through the Gospel's in 40 days. I believe for me and those who are partnering with me this will be an incredible season capped off by the remembrance of the death and burial of Christ! And then ultimately celebrating the resurrection! It's going to be epic!
So with all this free time, I plan one writing each day some of the things that I have learned or been fascinated by in the day's reading. They will be thoughts that have made me say WOW and hopefully they will do the same! Here we go;
Today's reading Matthew 1&2
Matthew 1
The beginning of this text is loaded with genealogy. While it may seem boring and the temptation is to just blow through it, it is utterly rich in giving us a glimpse at what Jesus is going to be about in His life. If you study some of the names here you will find adulterers, prostitutes, incest, and all kinds of other crazy stories. Many of the people listed here would make most church congregations highly uncomfortable if they decided to attend church and bless the pastor by sitting in the front row. And fascinating enough it's who God uses for the lineage of the Messiah! From the very beginning it was about the broken and messy!
Matthew 2
THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR! What an incredible story! Not much recap needed here, however I was reminded about all the prophecies and intricacies that exist in the Bible! It's absolutely amazing, it really is ALIVE! Today it was the gifts of the wise men that jumped out at me. We know they are good gifts but they are far more than that, they identify Jesus. Gold is what was given to kings; Jesus was the King of Kings, incense was what you would give to a priest, and Jesus was the High Priest of all high priest; myrrh ointment is used to heal, and Jesus is a healer. Myrrh was also used to embalm corpses- and Jesus was born to die!
And yet another fascinating fact. Jesus ended up in Nazareth being called a Nazarene. Nazarene means, "tender, green, or living branch." Jesus is the living Branch, the branch from David that extends the reach of the tree of Israel to us, foreigners and outsiders!
Hopefully you join me on this journey! I pray that the incredible stories come to life in your heart and that you become fascinated by the WORD!
As many of you know I have decided to give up Facebook during this Lent season. I did this to allow more time for things I feel really important! Jesus, family, and now writing! Starting today I am also reading through the Gospel's in 40 days. I believe for me and those who are partnering with me this will be an incredible season capped off by the remembrance of the death and burial of Christ! And then ultimately celebrating the resurrection! It's going to be epic!
So with all this free time, I plan one writing each day some of the things that I have learned or been fascinated by in the day's reading. They will be thoughts that have made me say WOW and hopefully they will do the same! Here we go;
Today's reading Matthew 1&2
Matthew 1
The beginning of this text is loaded with genealogy. While it may seem boring and the temptation is to just blow through it, it is utterly rich in giving us a glimpse at what Jesus is going to be about in His life. If you study some of the names here you will find adulterers, prostitutes, incest, and all kinds of other crazy stories. Many of the people listed here would make most church congregations highly uncomfortable if they decided to attend church and bless the pastor by sitting in the front row. And fascinating enough it's who God uses for the lineage of the Messiah! From the very beginning it was about the broken and messy!
Matthew 2
THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR! What an incredible story! Not much recap needed here, however I was reminded about all the prophecies and intricacies that exist in the Bible! It's absolutely amazing, it really is ALIVE! Today it was the gifts of the wise men that jumped out at me. We know they are good gifts but they are far more than that, they identify Jesus. Gold is what was given to kings; Jesus was the King of Kings, incense was what you would give to a priest, and Jesus was the High Priest of all high priest; myrrh ointment is used to heal, and Jesus is a healer. Myrrh was also used to embalm corpses- and Jesus was born to die!
And yet another fascinating fact. Jesus ended up in Nazareth being called a Nazarene. Nazarene means, "tender, green, or living branch." Jesus is the living Branch, the branch from David that extends the reach of the tree of Israel to us, foreigners and outsiders!
Hopefully you join me on this journey! I pray that the incredible stories come to life in your heart and that you become fascinated by the WORD!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Dictionaries, Babies, Wisdom
I have always been the kind of person who desired more knowledge. I have a fascination with information. I love to read, and make every effort to be a good student of life. Unfortunately this mentality didn't really surface until I graduated high school! I embraced the idea that the more information I pumped into my brain the more wisdom I would obtain.
This mentality is not evil in design, but I believe has become a giant stumbling block. Especially for those attempting to follow Christ and live lives that bring Glory to Jesus. We believe that we need to pump information from a pastor, a book, or other sources. We call it "getting feed" and we think through that we will obtain more wisdom that it will help us to be pure and holy. And for many this can lead to frustration with others especially the church, because that preacher isn't deep enough. This small group doesn't dig into and embrace theology. They don't even know what the word exegesis means!
Again, I am not advocating that we do not need to study and grow . But I would suggest we pause for a moment and really think about wisdom. Let's illustrate it this way. How does a baby learn to walk? Does he or she learn by studying adults? Or maybe by watching movies where the physics of motion are explained? NO, they start by rolling over, and then sitting up, and then crawling, and then falling. They start with one muscle group and then gradually add another until they have all the motions and strengths needed to walk.
So maybe one of the neglected keys to obtaining wisdom is simply being obedient to what we already know! Strengthening one muscle group at a time until we can add another and another. OBEDIENCE=WISDOM! So if you are a student, growing in wisdom could look as simple as respecting your parents today. Adults maybe it is respecting your spouse, our giving God control of your finances, or developing a daily prayer life.
Don't miss the blessing of simple obedience! It really is the foundation of growth.
This mentality is not evil in design, but I believe has become a giant stumbling block. Especially for those attempting to follow Christ and live lives that bring Glory to Jesus. We believe that we need to pump information from a pastor, a book, or other sources. We call it "getting feed" and we think through that we will obtain more wisdom that it will help us to be pure and holy. And for many this can lead to frustration with others especially the church, because that preacher isn't deep enough. This small group doesn't dig into and embrace theology. They don't even know what the word exegesis means!
Again, I am not advocating that we do not need to study and grow . But I would suggest we pause for a moment and really think about wisdom. Let's illustrate it this way. How does a baby learn to walk? Does he or she learn by studying adults? Or maybe by watching movies where the physics of motion are explained? NO, they start by rolling over, and then sitting up, and then crawling, and then falling. They start with one muscle group and then gradually add another until they have all the motions and strengths needed to walk.
So maybe one of the neglected keys to obtaining wisdom is simply being obedient to what we already know! Strengthening one muscle group at a time until we can add another and another. OBEDIENCE=WISDOM! So if you are a student, growing in wisdom could look as simple as respecting your parents today. Adults maybe it is respecting your spouse, our giving God control of your finances, or developing a daily prayer life.
Don't miss the blessing of simple obedience! It really is the foundation of growth.
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