Yesterday I heard this on Moody Radio.
Do you now how to tell if someone needs encouragement?
How?
If they are breathing.
We all need encouragement.
God loves you! He has a plan and a purpose for you! He will not stop working on you and with you and in you and for you until the good work (you) is complete.
Luke chapter 5 has a lot going on. Jesus calling of the disciples, but first providing a miraculous catch of fish, healing a leper, healing the paralytic with four faith filled friends, (it doesn’t say 4, I’m just thinking one on each corner), calling Levi the IRS guy and then answering the question about ministry style with a parable.
2 things stand out to me. What the leper said, “Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
More importantly Jesus answer, “I am willing, be clean”
And the second is Jesus reply to the Pharisees about who he hung out with, “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”.
I need Jesus to touch me and make me clean today. I need a savior who is seeking me out not because I’m so good but because I need spiritual healing.
Thank you Jesus for seeking me out and touching my unclean life and bringing me back into a relationship with you.
The pull of adventure can sometimes feel like gravity.
I’m not sure if this memory is a Prologue to a cautionary tale about an untimely death or the first paragraph of a legend starring me.
The scene is me at about 4 years old. My butt and my right leg are plopped inside the big brown coaster wagon, it wasn’t a radio flyer but it was along those lines. It was a lot of work to pull the wagon up to the the top of the east hill. Grandpa Loeffelbein’s little orchard was divided east and west by a deep gulley and the gulley had a small creek at the bottom. There was a bridge across the creek, just wide enough to drive grandpas Fordson tractor over. The road to the bottom was a gravel two track trail. The west side road was the steepest. Dead mans hill. Only fools tried riding the wagon down the west side. I had pulled the wagon down the west side and up the east side.
It would be epic I thought to myself. I was sure there was an award ceremony in my near future if only. If only I could over come the crippling fear that kept my left leg on the outside of the wagon extended with my heal dug in. I had my hand on the tiller. I don’t know if I squinted as I stared down to the bottom the hill, charting the course. It wasn’t that complicated. The road went straight to the bottom of the hill. All that was required of those bold enough to try was use the tiller to steer the wagon and keep it on the road and get over the bridge. On the north side of the bridge was about a three foot drop into the creek. On the south side it was more like a 4 foot drop and there was the barb wire fence and stinging nettles. If I had to ditch I would head for the north side. I didn’t know much about stinging nettles but rumor had it that it could result in blindness and death. Nettles were to be avoided. The course charted, and the plan made. As soon as I could swallow the fear I would begin.
I don’t remember what the trigger was that released my left foot emergency brake. I have an older brother and I suspect that there may have been taunting or some other challenge. It could’ve been the thrill effect where the excitement and anticipation of a thing fills up and over flows the brain bucket to fill and over flow the logic bucket and boldness bucket. Like a teeter-totter these three buckets on one side tipped the scale. The left foot came up, brake off, left leg got pulled over and in, tucked in and gravity took over. The part that I couldn’t have or at least didn’t anticipate was the vibration of the wagon and how it affected the steering. I was all over the road. As the speed approached Mach 10 and the vibration took over the controls I did the only rational thing my preschool brain could think of, I ditched to the north. As an adult I look back at this scene and see some dangers. The water in the creek isn’t deep to me now, shin deep. As a four year old my shins weren’t that tall. I remember that I was suddenly very wet and very cold.
The house where the adults were was at the top of the west side hill. There were some stairs that were made of old truck tires stacked and terraced into bank of the hill. Somehow my parents and grandparents were alerted to my catastrophic accident and near death experience. I don’t remember those details but I do remember the thrill of the ride down and the moment of deliberation before the thrill.
There were consequences. I did crash. I did get wet. I did cry. I don’t remember the wagon being at grandpa and grandmas house on the next visit.
I have dreams not of this but like this. One where I am sitting in a parked car the car is parked on a steep hill which turns into a cliff. In my dream the car starts to slide toward the edge. Not matter how hard I press on the brake it continues to slide down the hill.
Why are these stories in my head? I was trying to think of an example of getting pulled away from safety into danger. How the excitement can overcome reason, and reasonable fear is pooh-poohed away. I walked away. Like a good landing is any landing you can walk away from, what doesn’t kill you makes you maimed, wait no, makes you stronger? Hmmm. Same guy who said that also said God is dead. Not a fan of the man or his philosophy.
Anyway, I did face a fear, I took a chance, had an adventure, scared my grandparents, (I’m not sure my parents were ever concerned about safety, they had a bohemian mentality in some areas), I had fun up to a point. I started writing this because I was feeling the pull of sin like I felt the pull of fun and adventure and sometimes it feels almost like the pull of gravity. Becoming a Christian didn’t make all of that go away however I have this working for me.
“Romans 6:15-23 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Luke chapter 4 we have the story of the temptation of Jesus. Jesus was victorious over sin because he was victorious over temptation.
Jesus dealt with every temptation by crushing it with the word of God.
What do I do? I explain to the temptation why it wouldn’t be a good idea. I explain the consequences of moral failure. Sometimes I just say, not now. So the temptation comes back again and again. Temptations are very persistent. What else do they have to do?
I wonder how much less sinning I would do if I would just counter every temptation with “here’s what God says about that…..” But then I would actually have to know what he said. Hmm?
Next up? The good news according to Dr Luke.
For 400 years there is silence from heaven. No prophets, no revelation. The people of God carry on. They continue to pray and worship. It becomes routine
Worship can become routine. We do it because we do it because that’s what we do. Then something happens. Last week our power went out right before service started. It broke up the routine and we had to decide to worship not because it’s what we do but because we want to connect with the God of the universe, with the great God of mercy, with the God who loves us enough to die for us.
Zechariah was doing his job, his routine and a messenger of the great God he was serving showed up and had an answer to his prayer. It’s what we should expect. We should expect God to answer. He is listening. He is aware. He is watching and waiting for His perfect timing. Sometimes the routine becomes the thing. We forget that there is a God and a relationship with this God behind all the trappings.
I guess what I’m getting out of this is don’t give up praying. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. We have a God who hears our prayers and will answer them. Sometimes the answer is NO, and sometimes it is WAIT. What’s the difference? Time.
What was the prayer? I think there were 2 prayers. The first was for a child, and specifically a son. They’d prayed all through their marriage and then his wife’s body aged out. No more chances…? And yet With God comes the answer. They will have a boy. His name is to be John. The name means “God is gracious “.
The second prayer, a prayer that many people have prayed, Lord save us. God have mercy on us and send us a deliverer. John would be the one who would pronounce the arrival of a deliverer, his deliverer, our deliverer, the capital D deliverer, the messiah, our redeemer.
Yes God hears our prayers.
Yes God answers our prayers.
There are people that I have prayed for to get saved for over a decade with no change. There are others who did decide to follow Jesus. So I keep on praying and believing that God is hearing me and that someday he will take away the barrenness in this relationship and bring new life.
I was listening to a radio pastor yesterday and heard something new or at least fresh. A fresh thought.
As I get closer to Jesus , the light he brings into my life continues to expose more and more of the mess in my life.
Like if I were with Jesus in a dark room. He asks me if the room is clean. Hmm, the room is dark, nothing under my feet, I say yes. He then lights a match and we see just a little way around us. There are dirty dishes, litter, a pair of underwear that didn’t make it to the hamper. Then he turns on a flashlight and we see deeper into the room, more mess, then he flips on a light and we see clearly, smudged walls, mildew and mold.
The longer I hang out with Jesus the more stuff he exposes. Sometimes the pain and shame of a life exposed is too much and I want to push Jesus back out of my life and shut the door and please oh please, kill the light. The mess doesn’t go away when Jesus leaves and the light goes out, but if we don’t have to see the mess of our lives, we can pretend it isn’t there, and the pain and shame fall and fade.
Meeting Jesus and inviting him into my life will not make my life a blissful rose garden. Well not just the flowery part. Jesus will begin to clean up and the fascinating thing he will do is to use the poop of my life to grow beauty. The bible says the he will give us beauty for ashes. Ashes are the waste product of the end of something, something gone and useless. God has the ability to turn that part of life, and poop is a useless waste end of life product too, the poop and ashes and reuse them to bring us beauty, like roses.
This will only happen if we allow him into our lives and trust him enough to expose the mess behind the door. Denying a mess doesn’t make it go away. Admitting to a mess doesn’t make It go away either but it can start the process of cleansing.
Isaiah 61:1-6 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.”
Today will you let Jesus into your life to help you declutter your your heart and soul? He will turn it around for you. Beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for despair. He loves us and just wants to help.
What are you thinking about God right now? Who is he right now to you? A stern judge? A watching cop? A pouncing powerful predator?
OR
Is he a loving and gentle father? A caring and creative genius who thought up, well everything. Every thing. Even the things that make up things. Is he more like that?
“Psalm 95:6-7 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, “
God wants to be like our shepherd and like a father. He wants a close and caring relationship with us. That is why he sent Jesus for us. To enable a pathway back into God’s gentle, caring embrace.
Jesus has become the gateway through a wall so high you can’t get over it, so low, you can’t get under it, so wide, you can’t get around it, you gotta’ go right through the door 🚪. Jesus. Today, if you haven’t already, walk throught the door.
Then, we will worship this great and awesome God together. Woo hoo!
Every once in a while our Pastor will say that what he is speaking about is “family business” meaning it pertains to those of of us who are part of that specific body of believers. It is a specific message to a specific group of people.
I feel like Ephesians 4 is a “family business” chapter but not just for the people in Ephesus but all believers everywhere for all time.
I think I just said that it is specifically written to a general group. At least that’s what I intended.
John 3:16 is written to everyone, everywhere. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Once we decide to follow Jesus we join a new group, the body of Christ. The group of people known as the body of Christ live by a different set of guidelines.
I will use myself as an example. Basically there has been a shift, a change of command has happened. I used to be in charge. I did what I wanted. Now I have given over the control of my life to Jesus.
I’ll let Paul say it, “Living as Children of Light
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Paul goes on to say how our honesty in word and deed, and our reaction to anger needs to be different now that we are filled with Gods spirit. Our life experiences haven’t changed. We will still face the same temptations and trials that the general population does but now we are empowered to respond differently.
I’d like to quote one more verse that reminds me that when I need to forgive someone, that I too am in constant need of forgiveness.
“32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIV
This is going to sound stupid but this is one of those verses that bugs me. It bugs me because its sounds like it can’t be true. Like it’s the picture of the imaginary Christian life, the pretend Pollyanna Christian life.
The reason is that I have been utterly terrified before. Waking up after having your head bashed against a dashboard, the vehicle upside down and family members moaning and crying can bring on overwhelming fear. I have been in stark terror.
That car accident has been my scariest moment, but my most blissful peaceful moment came only minutes later. Somehow the people who came to the wreck got me out of the wreckage and put me in an ambulance. As I laid there fear was almost to crazy level which is 5 clicks past 11 on the fear dial, then I heard words,in my head or my heart or my ears I don’t know, the words were “Jesus will take care of you”.
Peace flooded over me and I relaxed. That could be when I died I don’t know. When we arrived at the hospital I was clinically dead, no pulse and not breathing.
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIV
IMaybe in the days since then when I’ve encountered fear, it wasn’t God’s fault, it was mine for losing sight of him. How can we fear if we know the God who said to nothingness “let there be light” and there was light, who created mankind and watched as we as a race defied him, then he provided a way back to him through giving up his only son to be punished in our place. If we know that God, and can keep him in our sights and believe and trust in his existence and receive his persistent love, maybe our souls can experience peace.
After reading through Romans a chapter a day since January I think I’ve read the book about 14 times this year. I’ve been pondering which book to read next. The book of Ephesians keeps popping up in my head so this morning I read the preface. It is a letter that Paul wrote while in prison in Rome so beyond the words in it, the where, why and how of this book compels me to study it next after studying Romans. First the book to Romans and then the book from Rome.
I found this this morning and it is my heart for me and those who read my posts.
“12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
I want to know God better. I want to know the hope that he has called me to, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and his incomparable great power.
Love in action
How then shall we live?
Love in Action
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. On the contrary:“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” NIV Rom 12:9-21
This is how followers of Jesus should live. It is the expanded version of “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”
So live like this.
Impossible?
Without a change of heart and mind, yes, impossible.
Followers of Jesus get a bonus guide. When a person makes Jesus their master and believes that Jesus has raised from the dead, they go through a rebirth and at this birth God’s spirit comes to live inside them as a guide, an internal spiritual gps. All of our confessed sin is washed away. We are made clean and new.
When the new birth happens a new heart is transplanted into us, one that loves God and loves our neighbors. And as we grow, and learn how to follow Jesus by reading his word, our mind is renewed.
We get a restart, a new beginning with A guiding Spirit, a new heart which loves and a renewed mind.
From that place we can begin to live this new lifestyle. A life of love, mercy, grace and service.
“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”
God is merciful.
For some of us that is the problem. His mercy attracts us but also repels us. If he can forgive me, and welcome me, then what’s to keep him from forgiving and welcoming my enemy? How can he forgive the person who hurt me so deeply? It isn’t fair.
Some of us are stuck in the attraction/repulsion zone. We know what Jesus said about forgiveness, that to receive it we must give it.
“Matthew 6:12-15 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. “
We get stuck right here.
There are 3 things to consider if we find ourselves stuck, needing forgiveness, but unable to forgive.
There is still a day of accounting to come. This will be the day when all things wrong get righted. I don’t know how it will work. I know Jesus has paid for my sins so I will not be punished, but somehow he will make up for wrong that I did. His way of Justice will be as perfect as his way of Mercy. He is infinitely powerful and infinitely creative and solutions are unlimited to him.
Today, please consider surrendering to the great God of mercy and let him begin the process of renewal in you.
I had a spiritual experience on the way home. It’s kind of private but I am going to share it because it might encourage someone else.
My dad and I were not very close as I grew up. This has made it difficult for me to understand the fatherhood of God in a loving way. At best it has felt that God tolerates me.
Tonight a radio pastor asked his listening audience to imagine themselves alone in a room with Jesus. Jesus sitting toe to toe and eye to eye. What would he say to you?
I knew right away, in spite of my sinfulness Jesus first words to me would be “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!”
But then my mind wandered to the Father, what would he say to me?
It was as if I heard his loving voice say, ” I sent him for you…”
My Father in heaven sent his only son to die in my place, to die for my sins. Why would he do that? Because he loves me “so much!”
I don’t get it all, but today I understand a little better how my Heavenly Father feels about me. He loves me so much! So much that he will sacrifice his own son to save me.
Here is some good news for anyone reading this, he loves you “so much!” too!
“Though in your sin you are undeserving and undesirable, He loves you when your mind disavows it, your heart dodges it, and your soul dismisses it. He loves you right now as you are, not as you think you should be.”
I don’t have to shower or shave, to change my socks or undies or my habits before God will love me. He just loves me.
I put a period at the end of that last sentence but my emotions want to put a question mark there. Even me? Even me God? Have you seen me? Have you looked at all of my life?
Yes he has, and the truth is still the same for even me. For God so loved (my name here) that he gave his one and only son so that (my name here) would believe in Him, he gave the power to become a child of God and give him not death, but eternal life. That was John 3:16 from a paraphrased memory. Here it’s quoted:
“John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world (our name here)that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever (and here)believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world (and here), but to save the world (and here) through him. “
I rejoice that so many of my Christian friends read my early morning devotional ramblings but I also hope that someone who doesn’t know about Jesus love for them yet might read this or at least hear the message. Will you, the person reading this, tell one other person today that God loves them and Jesus came to die for them so they can share in God’s love and have eternal life? At least one?
Thank you.
I had it all wrong as a child. It was a pleasant idea. It made my parents smile when I told them how I thought it worked. As a kid I thought everyone believed in Jesus. I also thought that Jesus was running the world from an office building in New York City
I was about 6 at the time. Something I heard on the news was talking about Israel and the Jews. I didn’t know that some of Gods people hadn’t accepted Jesus as their messiah.
Yet.
Romans 11 talks about this.
“25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.”
I am one of those Gentiles that God has been gathering in. I am so grateful. When he is all done with that, all of us gathered, things are going to change here. Wouldn’t it be cool to be part of the last Gentile coming to Jesus? What can I do to participate in that?
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil that I do not want to do- this I keep on doing.”
The voice of my sinful nature is never silent and the pull of my fleshly appetites never goes away. Like gravity there is a constant tug to go the opposite way that God is calling me to follow. How do I do what is right? Like a dog being called by two “owners” I am conflicted. I need to follow the one who loves me the best. The one who loves me the best is the one who made me, paid for me, and wants the best for me not only now, but in the life to come. The “owner” that loves me best may not have a treat in his hand, but he has love in his eyes and his voice as he says, “come, follow me”.
“…Who will rescue me from this body of death?thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:18,19,24,25
The good news gets better and clearer in chapter 8. The apostle Paul continues.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Rom 8:1-4 NIV
I’ve been doing it wrong
I am reading a book by AW Tozer. So far I am only into the introduction. But he has already taught me something that will help me immensely.
You see, I have been reading the Bible wrong. I have been reading the Bible to learn the words written there. But those words that were written were written by a person who was trying, by writing the words, to reveal Himself. That person is not the human author of each book but is the God who inspired the human. God is attempting to reveal himself to us through his word. The words are important but the God who stands behind the words, the God who spoke the words through his apostles and prophets, it’s Him I am trying to learn about, it’s Him I am trying to hear, it’s Him who I am trying to get close to.
This morning I am reading a Psalm, what is God showing me about Himself through these words? What is he saying to me? What can I learn about Him today? What will he teach about myself? About others around me?
It’s not that the words of the Bible don’t matter, but they aren’t the end. They are the map to find the treasure that is God Himself.
“I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.”
Psalm 108:3-5 – NIV
And I add my own words, show me who you are God my Father, and show me how to live.
A truer thing has never been said
Praising God, telling God and others how wonderful he is, when I am doing that, I am being more honest and truthful than at any other time that I speak.
When I say God is good I am speaking the truth. He is the good -est. there is no person place or thing good – er than Him. He is loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, slow to anger.
Psalm 103 says that his love for us is higher than than heavens and that when he forgives us, he removes our sins as far as the East is from the west.
To tell the truth, the truth is God is good. Life sometimes both sucks as blows and God is still good. God is holy, which in one sense of the word means “other”. Everything else in creation is creation. All made by Him. Since God is not part of creation he is not tainted by the mess we are in and yet he cares deeply about the mess we are in and about us, as a whole, but more importantly, as individuals.
John 3:16-17 talks about the world and then the individual. Let’s give it a read.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 – NIV
God loves us as a race of humans and he loves us as individuals, you and me, and sent Jesus to die in our place, raised him to life and now offers us freedom from sin and death.
Honestly, God is good.
How can he help you today?
Train musings:
As I’m looking out the window of our train to Venice I’m realizing that the air, the water, the plants and trees don’t know or seem to care what country they are in. They listen to and obey a higher authority than a man who draws a line in the dirt and says “this is mine and that is yours”. They obey a higher authority, the one who made them.
People have some strong opinions about who belongs where. I’m sure that there were meetings in a smoke filled room somewhere. men wearing suits looked at a map and argued where the lines should go.
I don’t think that God sees it that way. The planet that is. One reason might be his vantage point looking down from
Heaven it all looks the same. No colors of states or countries. No lines.
Another reason could be that it is all his. All the land, all the animals, the trees plants fish birds all are his. He made it. He made it and he made us. All of us. No matter what hue our skin is or what language we speak or inside which lines drawn on the map we find our feet or our home. We are his. God is an international God because he only made one planet earth.
Growing up I thought God dressed like captain America Except he wore a robe but his robe was red white and blue because he loved America more than any other country. We were right and they( whomever) were wrong. In any fight, God was on our side.
In the revelation of John the apostle described the vision of the city of God. In that vision he describes the foundation stones of the heavenly city. It is made of 12 different colored stones. I wonder if those 12 colors encompass the colors of all the flags of all the nations?
From Johns description There isn’t going to be an American heaven and an Italian heaven and a French heaven. There is just going to be heaven, the place God dwells. Neither will there be sections for Catholics and a part for Protestants, a space for Jews there will be an all inclusive home for those who believe and receive Gods gift of salvation, being bought back to be a child of God from slavery to sin. No denominations of Protestantism , one God, one heaven, one family. Strange to think about.
One of the creeds I learned as a child said about us believers that we’re one holy catholic, which means universal, church. We are after all part of one body, the bride of Christ, his church.
“I sum up”
It’s one of my favorite quotes from “the Princess Bride”.
Jesus summed up the law and the prophets in two small quotes.
In Matthew 22 Jesus was asked this:
“34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”’
My favorite commandments are the ones that are easy not to break like , don’t murder. That WAS easy until Jesus said that if you hate someone, you’ve already murdered them in your heart. That one I’ve broken.
They seem be about behaviors to avoid. But the commandments Jesus lists are things to actively do. Love God. Love people.
So this Christian life, it may not be about not doing the don’ts, but more about doing the do’s.
Jesus says later, recorded in Johns Gospel, that the way the world will be able to tell us apart from the rest of the population is how we love one another.
If you look at how Christians are portrayed in our culture, that isn’t how we are known.
How do I appear? How do I live? How do I love? Do I treat people the way I want to be treated? Do I love self-sacrificially?
Things to ponder and correct if necessary. Paul gave us a summary of how we should live in his letter to the Romans.
“9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e]
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
How are we doing with this?
Peter’s Posts 