Good Grief, Don't Miss the Good News

S - Luke 4:17-21 (NLT): "The scroll containing the messages of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll to the place where it says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently. Then he said, "This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!""

O - This event in the life of Jesus and the life of planet earth took place in his hometown … a topic he would address just a little while later.  The issue here is both fulfillment and timing.  We can certainly speak in terms of the broad and far reaching strokes of God's will and purposes, of messianic promises and larger theological contexts.  But if this is all we do we have missed the essential point.  The point is all about "your very eyes." The Isaiah passage is always true about Jesus and his activity … it’s the "stuff he does." But the fulfillment and timing is less about the big universal picture and more about everyone present experiencing the activity Jesus wants to engage them with.  Jesus wants into every life and his "agenda" is clearly stated from the first day to our last on this planet: Good News, release of captives, blind eyes opened, freedom from oppressors and the Lord's favor.  In the power and relentless love of the Lord he pursues this "agenda" in each life that welcomes him.  Today is the day of salvation … today while it is called today.

A - In view of the awesome scope of the Isaiah passage and the one reading it, its universal application to every human being and the faithfulness of God to all his promises … Jesus wants this to be true for me this day and every day … I want it too!  Each day I wake up I see men walking like trees, am subject to forces and powers far beyond me, am vulnerable to missing the point, failing the moment and discovering that thinking I was doing well I have done so very  poorly.  The Good News remains that Jesus' agenda for me and for my world has not changed and he is able to fulfill the work he set out to do - very good news.

P - Dear Lord who wants completely in,

I want you completely in … in all of me and through me according to all that you've planned and dreamt and purposed.  You are life and there is no life apart from you.  So Lord, I beg (about my need not your recalcitrance) for you to heal me, save me, rescue, protect and engage me that I would be your friend, your son and you would be glorified in me and through me.  Lord, I love you back.  Thank you for letting me pray in Jesus' name,

Steve

And Have You Made Your Selection?

S - Acts 15:1, 7-11 (NIV): "Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."  ... After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." "

O - Humans are always trying to add to the work which God has done and is doing.  In his great desire for relationship with us and to give us great dignity he allows us to choose but he wants us to choose the part he has assigned us in the work he has done and is doing.  Whenever we don't trust we either stop altogether OR we do things he has not asked of us.  It is the difference between with the Lord or for him, between the light load or the heavy one, between divine grace and human works, between life and death.  There's the list; the choice is ours.

A - Today, while it is called today, I receive the great dignity of choice.  Today my part really does matter because God is so humble and loves us so much.  Today I can choose to work for him or with him.  I can choose relationship or religion, the light load or the heavy one, life or death.  My choices will not be able to affect his love for me but they will directly affect my capacities to receive his love and his life.  He is life.  He is love. I choose to love him back and to welcome his life according to his desire and design. Today has to be a great day no matter what!

P - Lord,

Thank you for wanting me to work and live with you not for you.  Thank you again for wanting me/us at our worst and for wanting us in ongoing relationship.  Today I want to be someone that is a steady exchange of your life and love coming into me and out of me. I don't want to add a thing.  I'd really like to just be near you and be a reason another might believe.
Thank you for choosing me/us,
Steve

God's Market Analysis

S - Matthew 13:44-46 (TLJ): "God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field. One day a man found the treasure. He hid it again and was so happy that he went and sold everything he owned and bought the field. Also, God's kingdom is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. One day he found a very fine pearl. He went and sold everything he had to buy it."

O - God's kingdom is like, found, and sold everything. These are the shared words in the parables Jesus tells us about his Father's kingdom.  The kingdom is beautiful, valuable. It is worth the price paid according to experts (merchants) and treasure seekers alike.  The price is the same for all … no discounts for first time buyers or for industry insiders. Though the price does not vary this "item" remains available to all.  It simply costs everything.  This is not a comparative amount.  Little or big, weak or strong, religious or secular, expensive or cheap, all he wants is all.  This is the greatest commandment.  This is the exchange … he gave everything for us and now allows us to respond in like kind.  

A - I never thought that giving all would include my credential as a "minister". I have discovered it does.  All includes church positions, reputations, salaries, benefits and the like.  It's not that we can never have such but rather that all are given to Jesus and then he decides all the rest. Giving everything is not a onetime shot because over time we just accumulate.  It's not wrong that we do it's just that the price for possessing the kingdom never fluctuates. Yesterday, today and tomorrow God's kingdom is like the treasure and the pearl; it is ours for the finding and it still costs everything.  Today, everything is the price I am more than willing to pay:)!

P - Lord of and over everything,
Thank you for your generosity to me and to our planet.  Thank you for the dignity of giving to you the way you've given to us.  Thank you for enabling me/us to always be able to "afford" to possess your kingdom … the treasure and pearl of lasting value.  Lord, today let me be a reason someone else would believe.  Lord, today cause your life to come into me and out of me.  I love you back.
All in,
Steve

Simon says ...

S - Acts 8:9,13,18-24 (NLT): "A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, claiming to be someone great.  … Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the great miracles and signs Philip performed.  … When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people's heads, he offered money to buy this power. "Let me have this power, too," he exclaimed, "so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!" But Peter replied, "May your money perish with you for thinking God's gift can be bought!  You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right before God.  Turn from your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see that you are full of bitterness and held captive by sin." "Pray to the Lord for me," Simon exclaimed, "that these terrible things won't happen to me!" "

O - The sorcerer's life is not followed any further than this glimpse in Acts 8.  Scripture records that he both believed and was baptized and yet in his exchange with Peter we learn that he is not right before God and is full of bitterness and held captive by sin.  How can someone believe and be baptized and still be in this condition?  Some would say he wasn't really "saved" … and yet verse 13 specifically identifies him as having engaged the elements of all those who belong to the Lord. How should we understand this insight into the life of this first century inhabitant?  While the life, death and resurrection of Jesus provide a full and completed work for the human race, the work in us is often in stages over time.  There is not one person in the Scriptures where growth and transformation is not an ongoing part of their experience on earth in Jesus. 

A - The real issue is not me assessing the sorcerer or any other person. It is allowing the Lord, his Spirit and word to be assessing me and to have complete access to my entire life.  Jesus is always very intent on me getting the 2X4 out of my own eye before I attempt any activity with others and the sawdust they are working through. 

P - Lord who forgives 70 X 7,

Thank you for this day and for the hope and help it brings because you are the creator of it and of me.  Thank you for making a way for growth, hope, transformation and change as we come near and stay near.  Lord, I really do hope that Simon the sorcerer found his way to stay as near to you as he did to Philip.  I would like to meet him in heaven and hear his story.  Lord, I want to stay near, make you glad and be a reason someone else would believe.  Thank you for loving both Simon the apostle and Simon the Sorcerer.
All my love,
Steve

Love Who?

S - Luke 6:27-36 (NLT): ""But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.  Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do for others as you would like them to do for you. "Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, what good is that? Even sinners will lend to their own kind for a full return. "Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."

O - People gathered around Jesus for lots of reasons and one of them was his teaching.  In this setting, he calls for a willingness to listen and then the very first thing he says is "love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you.“ This is the very first expression of Jesus' teaching on love for others that Luke's gospel records.  Why not start with love your parents or siblings or life's partner or the very famous love your neighbor (assuming of course your neighbor is not your enemy)?  Shouldn't we start at something "easier" and then work ourselves up to the most difficult … you know learn to crawl before walking and then walk before running?  While that type of progression maybe a protocol for other kingdom activities (wisdom, stature, favor with God), Jesus will have none of it in the arena of love.  Love is not amorphous, rare nor defying exact parameters.  While its expressions are limitless its root and focus are singularly defined.  Its root is God (God is love) and its focus is all others - all is inclusive with no exceptions. Apparently God and love are not only connected in definition but in all expressions (even human to human) planet earth holds.  Our capacity to love and be loved is from God, in God and will require his direct involvement for love to be what it actually is.  Anything less may be a good thing but it will not and cannot be love.

A - Certainly love engages my will … but it insists on engaging it fully and indiscriminately.  While my expression of love can (and even should) vary from person to person and setting to setting the presence, actions and purpose of love are to be universal and unequivocal.  This is a bit overwhelming but so is God:).  Jesus calls me to believe and align my will with his.  To be "ready" to act on a moment’s notice as well as with deliberate and well thought out activities.  The parameters of love set out in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 will help me assess my current state of love readiness and activity.  While requiring my will it also requires my God.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NLT):"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever … ."

P - Dear Lord God Almighty who is love,
Thank you for your relentless love, defiant mercy and unflickering forgiveness. Lord, I engage your love, forgiveness and mercy as I consider my own 'listening' and frequent failures to love.  Lord, admitting this is not my attempt to explain or justify but to rectify my life in welcoming YOU to accomplish this in and through me.  You dignify my life with the capacity to choose and so as this day begins for me I choose you, I choose love, I choose your will and kingdom because you have loved me first and most and refused to change your mind.  I choose to give the way I've received … and this includes and requires your activity in and through me if there is to be any hope of accomplishment.  Lord, however all this works I pray that it/you would work in and through me. 
In them,
Steve