Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Matthew 13 – Adoption

Matthew Chapter 13 is why I am not a universalist.  Jesus tells parable after parable describing the kingdom of heaven.  In each parable there are two categories; the ones brought into the kingdom and the ones excluded.  Jesus makes it very clear that there will be some who will be excluded from the kingdom of heaven.  The sons of the evil one, everything that causes sin and all who do evil will be weeded out of the kingdom of heaven.

I cause and do evil;  what hope have I of not being weeded out of God’s kingdom?  I have hope because I have been adopted by God as one of his children.  I am no longer a son of the evil one but a son of God.  I am not a weed, but rather a part of God’ harvest.  I will have the opportunity to shine like the sun in the kingdom of my Father.

There is nothing I have done or could have done that earned my adoption into the family of God.  It was a gift freely given by God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is my Lord and the one who has saved my soul and restored me to God.

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Matthew 12 – The empty space in our soul

Jesus speaks to some of his opponents by saying, “When an evil spirit comes out fo a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’  When it arrives, it find the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.  Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.  And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.  That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus was telling his opponents that it is not enough for a person to merely be convicted of their wrong actions and commit to changing their behaviors and lifestyles.  If that is all that happens then after a time they will fall back into their old sins.  Rather, the wrong actions must be replaced with something new; namely the Holy Spirit.

The worst thing the church can do to new Christians is leave them alone.  If someone has been convicted of their wrong actions and recognized the need for Christ in their life, they need to have someone in their life who can give them continuing ongoing support.  The new Christian needs to be assisted in filling their life with the Holy Spirit.

When the church fails to build up and strengthen new Christians we leave them vulnerable to the attacks of the spirits who were chased from their life.  We live them vulnerable to old habits and vices.  We need to purposefully be an active part of their life so they can be filled with a new Spirit who brings new habits and virtues.

Empty space in our soul will be filled.  We need to be sure that it is filled with the Holy Spirit.

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Matthew 11 – Yokes

Jesus begins to denounce the cities where he had performed miracles because they did not repent.  Even though they witnessed amazing healings and wondrous signs the people in those cities were unable to recognize Jesus for who he is.  The same is often true in our churches.  We can witness amazing miracles, the healing of people’s bodies, hearts and souls, yet not be moved to worship God.  We are often too slow to trust and too quick to be skeptics.

To these same people Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  When we trust in Jesus, he will take our burdens.

I have loaded my own shoulders with worries and cares that are not my rightful burden.  I have a Lord and Savior who will take them from me if I will entrust those cares to him.  If I am willing to give up control to my God then my burden will be lightened, and I will have rest.

I try, I worry, I fail, I hope, I agonize, I control, I do, I decide.  If I place my efforts, worries, failures, hopes, agonies, needs, deeds, and decisions on God’s shoulders, we will all be better off.  God is able to accomplish what I am only able to be burdened by.

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Matthew 10 – Shake the dust slowly

Jesus sends out his disciples into the world to preach the message, “the kingdom of heaven is near.”  Jesus gives his disciples many warnings.  He warns them that many will reject them and some will persecute them.  Jesus says he came to bring this conflict to the world, but that anyone who receives him will be received by God.  Jesus concludes his remarks by saying, “if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Jesus asked his disciples to do two things: preach and minister to the lost.  I believe that Jesus calls each of us to these same two tasks.  We are called to share the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to our community.  It is our responsibility that they know that new life is available to them.  It is also our responsibility to minister to the needs of our community around us.  We need to exemplify the love of Jesus by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, quenching the thirst of the parched, and providing opportunities to the poor.

Jesus tells his disciples that if they are not welcomed they need to shake the dust from their sandals and leave town.  I think we Christians are too quick to shake the dust from our sandals.  I think we give up on people before we have taken the time to minister to their needs.  I do not get to decide who I give up on.  God decides when it is time for me to shake the dust from my sandals.

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Matthew 9 – Matthew’s party

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher each with tax collectors and sinners?’  On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Upon finding Jesus and turning his life over to him the first thing Matthew does is have a big party and invite all his friends over.  Matthew wants to share Jesus with his old buddies who need Jesus just as much as Matthew needed Jesus.

There are two things we can take away from this.  First, those who have newly discovered Jesus are often the best at bringing new people to Jesus.  Second, if we are trying to do ministry and the only people we are around are people who already know Jesus, then we are doing a very shallow form of ministry.

If the people we minister to know Jesus; they may need help, they may need guidance, they may need encouragement, they may need direction, but they should not be the primary focus of our ministry.  They are not the ones dying.  We need to minister most to the sick.  We need to minister most to those who do not know Jesus; those who are dying for a relationship with Jesus.

If you are not surrounded by people who have no relationship with Jesus at some point this week , then you should ask, “am I ministering?”

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2008 NFL Predictions

I made these predictions last week (prior to the start of the season), but never got around to posting them. If you want to see how I called each of the 256 games you can hit the read more button; otherwise everything is above the fold.

So the Playoff teams would be…
AFC: 1-San Diego, 2-NY Jets, 3-Jacksonville, 4-Cleveland, 5-Indianapolis, 6-Buffalo
NFC: 1-Minnesota, 2-Washington, 3-Carolina, 4-Arizona, 5-Dallas, 6-Green Bay

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Matthew 8 – What is faith?

Matthew chapter 8 is a series of narratives loosely based around the theme of faith.  First Jesus heals a man with leprosy who says to Jesus, “Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Then a Centurion comes to Jesus to heal his servant.  Jesus says to the Centurion, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”  Then after healing Peter’s mother-in-law he heals many people brought to him.

Then two individuals come to Jesus and ask to be one of his disciples.  He tells the first that if he follows Jesus he will be homeless.  The second asks to go bury his father first, but Jesus says, “let the dead bury their own dead.”  Both of these disciples lacked the faith of those who had been healed.

Jesus then crosses the sea with his disciples.  While Jesus is sleeping there is a storm.  The disciples wake Jesus fearing for their lives.  Jesus says, “You of little faith, why are you afraid?” then he quiets the storm.  The disciples of Jesus are behaving in an opposite manner of the Centurion who came to Jesus for the healing of his servant.

Finally, Jesus casts demons out of two men.  Then the town asks Jesus to leave their region.  It’s amazing that we can witness something incredible but then chase away the one who did it because we do not understand them.

If any of us want God to do miracles then we have to have faith that God is capable of performing miracles.  Having faith does not mean that you get anything you want; rather, it means that you trust that God is capable of accomplishing  God’s will.  “Lord, if you are willing, you can…”

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Matthew 7 – False prophets

“Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

I have known many false prophets in my short life time and I have to tell you, for the most part they are genuine, sincere people.  I have never met anyone who wants to be evil or is purposefully trying to lie to people.  Usually, for one reason or another, they have seen the gospel of Jesus Christ, not liked something about it, and turned away.  However, they believe they are leading people toward the real truth.  Writing that scares me because I know many people who would argue that I have been a false prophet and done the same thing.

I would draw the line by asking is what the person teaching leading toward Jesus.  If we are traveling toward Jesus we can disagree along the way.  If someone has rejected Jesus, then we are no longer on the same journey.

I believe that anyone in church leadership should be worried about being a false prophet.  The minute it is no longer a concern is the minute you should step out of ministry.  Ministry is a tremendous responsibility.  God has entrusted us with caring for people’s souls.  When I am not pursuing Jesus, I cannot care for my own souls much less anyone else.

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A Prayer

God of life,

Speak to us today. Tell us your will. Reveal your words to us. Enable us to speak words from you to all we encounter this week. Let us be a reflection of your light to our world. Let us be a guide and a signpost pointing to you. Help us when we falter, rebuild us when we fail, heal us when we are broken. Spoke to us in our need. Speak to us even when we do not want to hear. Guide our words even when we forget to ask. Remind us constantly to turn away from ourselves and toward you.

Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

Christ, the blessed One, gives to all
Wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life;
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

Sweetly echo the Gospel call,
Wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
Sanctify us forever.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

Thank you God. Amen.

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some suff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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Matthew 6 – Fasting

“When you fast…”  I’ve always wondered about that phrase.  Does it imply that fasting should be as much a part of Christian life as praying (v5 “And when you pray”), or does it mean that Jesus knew his audience had a practice in fasting and he was instructing them on the proper way to fast.  I tend to think that both are true.

I think fasting is one of the best disciplines we could reintroduce to American Christian culture (along with confession, but that’s for a different post).  Fasting requires discipline, commitment, and selflessness; it also does an amazing job of reorienting our lives.  You never really forget that you are fasting so you are constantly reminded of God working in your life.

Jesus main point in this passage is that fasting is not something we do to demonstrate our holiness to others.  Rather, fasting is something we do to reorient our hearts and minds to the will of God.  I often need to be reoriented and I do not fast enough.

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Matthew 5 – Blessed are…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit”.  The who?  What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?  The term poor here can mean poor, oppressed, beggarly or impotent.  So, blessed are those who have spirits which are not narcissistic. Who recognize that there is something greater than themselves.  Who beg for God to be active in their life.  Who recognize that they are powerless and dependant upon God.  For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn”.

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Matthew 4 – Times of testing

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”  Let’s take a look at that sentence for a few minutes.  We know who Jesus is, but to what Spirit is the author referring?  That would be the Spirit of God which descended like a dove and lighted on Jesus back in 3:16.  What is the desert referring to?  The word used here can mean: desert, wilderness, lonesome, waste, desolate, or solitary.  It seems likely that this verse is saying that the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness that surrounded the Jordan where John was baptizing.  But it also seems likely that there is a connotation of Jesus being led into solitude and even loneliness.

Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness for the express purpose of being tested by “the devil.”

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Matthew 3 – Power and humility

I find John the Baptist to be one of the most sympathetic characters in the Gospels.  He has been called by God to “prepare the way for the Lord” and to “make straight paths for him.”  That’s not easy work.  If you’ve ever been called to prepare the way for the Lord, you’d know it’s hard work and you don’t get much recognition.  Rather you get scornful people coming to you, looking at your work, and disparaging it.  Then at the end of his mission he is unjustly killed because he was faithful in doing what God called him to do.

But John’s life was worth it because he got to meet and worship Jesus.  Whatever God calls us to do, if we have Jesus in our hearts and lives, it is worth it.  If Jesus is not at the center of our being nothing is worthwhile.

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Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Comana

I listen to a couple daily podcasts that recount the stories of saints.  August 12th was the story of St Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Comana.  Alexander’s story illustrates that God is in control; our job is to live a life devoted to God and follow God’s leading.  There is not a task unworthy of me if it is the task to which God has called me.

In the city of Comana, or Cuma, near Neocaesarea there lived in the third century a pious man by the name of Alexander. He seemed to be simple and uneducated; he lived in poverty, barely supporting himself by selling coal at the marketplace.

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Matthew 2 – Worship or destroy

I’m sure I’m not the only person who does this, but in my head I tend to combine the different accounts of Jesus birth. So I was surprised when I realized that the whole traveling to Bethlehem/no room in the inn scene does not occur in Matthew. Rather, Joseph takes Mary into his home as his wife, Jesus is born, and some time later the Magi show up.

I appreciate that the different Gospel authors place their individual emphasis on different aspects of story of Jesus.

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Monday night sports

Tonight is the last Monday before the start of Monday Night Football!!!

Football

My Jayhawks got off to a good start this weekend. 

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Matthew 1 – Considering before acting

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine about the joy of reading genealogies in the Bible (I’m being somewhat facetious in that sentence).  Genealogies tend to be somewhat dry and tedious but if you know where to look there can be some really interesting things going on within a genealogy.  An example that immediately comes to mind is Genesis 5;  I love reading about Enoch and when I feel the need to seek out a role model in the Bible I turn to Genesis 5 and try to be a man who walks with God.

The Gospel of Matthew begins with an often overlooked genealogy.  Many times we want to jump ahead to the story of Christ’s advent, but there are a few interesting things going on in the genealogy.

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Summer Meanderings and Notes

I wound up taking the summer off from blogging. Regular posts will restart on September 1st. I am going to start blogging on 1 chapter of the Bible each day, staring with the Gospel of Matthew. There are 1,189 chapters so this project should last until December 3, 2011. I have not decided what order I am going in yet, I may make it up as I go along. I am also going to try to post more on the intersection of theology and literature, music, sports, politics, economics, and religion in general. At least, that’s the plan. So start checking back in on September 1st.

In the mean time, here’s some stuff I’ve come across this summer:

Have a great end to your summer!

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