Everything and Everyone

S -"Jesus told his followers: Have faith in God! If you have confidence in God and don’t doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. Everything you ask God for will be yours, if you only have faith. Whenever you stand up to speak with God, you must forgive what others have done to you. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins." Mark 11 TS

O -In the wake of a fig tree dried up from the roots, Jesus instructs his followers on the dynamics of asking and receiving. The baseline is not theologically accurate conclusions about God but ongoing personal confidence in and connection with God. The not doubting part is relational (confidence in God) not circumstantial (belief in an outcome). God makes and keeps everything possible. Such faith, such confidence compels and requires a conclusion which is essential beyond any needed or desired outcome. The freedom of forgiveness from any sin and for any who’ve sinned against us.

A - According to Jesus, asking anything and forgiving everything, everyone, are directly connected. They are inseparable because of the One with whom nothing is impossible and who is working everything for good. Earth wants to separate the issues and heaven won’t have it. I will admit and accept this unchanging reality: asking anything and forgiving everyone as I am being forgiven. 

P - All Merciful and All Mighty God,

With confidence in your person and forgiveness for all I will ask and not doubt you. Come what may I am overjoyed in the freedom of forgiveness received and given. Thank you for loving us first and most … and for refusing to change your mind. I’ll love you back with love for all.

According to Jesus,

Steve

Justice for All

S -"So God’s promise came true, just as Isaiah the prophet had said, “Here is my chosen servant! I love him, and he pleases me. I will give him my Spirit, and he will bring justice to the nations. He won’t shout or yell or call out in the streets. He won’t break off a bent reed or put out a dying flame, but he will make sure that justice is done. All nations will place their hope in his name.” Matthew 12:17-21 TS

O -These words, spoken in the 6th century BCE, describe Jesus of Nazareth; his person, influence, methodology and activity. The description is not exhaustive but it is stellar and strikingly poignant when one considers the condition of our world and the volume of injustice currently imposed. No nation, ethnicity, social strata or cultural group is exempt. Yet all people and all nations have the same access to the only enduring source and fulfillment of justice. Governments, religions and the United Nations cannot produce it. Legislation, verdicts and marches won’t accomplish or sustain it … a person will.  

A - Justice is not a function of laws, regulations or court mandates; it is a function primarily of the heart.  It comes from within not from without.  Certainly, we should have just laws, regulations and mandates but these have never produced the justice they seek.  Justice requires an ongoing transformation of the human heart. This is something exclusively in the prevue and activity of Jesus and he is available to all … to me.  I will welcome his ongoing transformation of my thinking, living, loving and speaking unto the freedom and justice intended for all.  I will seek to remove the plank in my own eye; to love my neighbor (7.6 billion minus one … anyone who's not me) as my equal, my very self and to count on his help to do it.  I will admit and live the reality that justice comes from within me from him to all around me. Yes to liberty and justice for all! 

P -Lord of all and Lord of me,

I am inspired and relieved to know this reality of justice and that you alone are its true source. I have hope for a transformed me and a transformed world … day by day.  My answer is yes to everything you already have in mind.  I will live and pray in Jesus' name. 

Steve