Missed it by a Mile

S - Matthew 12:1-5, 7, 8, 41, 42 (NIV): "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” …  The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here."

O - How could a people group given over to a focus on Scripture end up so far off?  They could quote the words exactly and completely miss the meaning.  The result was tragic on many levels affecting them and those around them. Culture (religious and non-religious) is always striving to be "right", to be so accurate that all who disagree with their conclusions are either bigots or idiots or both.  Jesus, the something greater than everything else, arrives to confront and recalibrate it all.  His emphasis (the emphasis of the Kingdom of Heaven) will be entirely different than culture's.  For Jesus where you start from is actually more important than the facts themselves, loving is more important than being right and the point of all Scripture is right relationships rather than accurate theological conclusions (i.e. the greatest commandments).  So, how does one avoid missing it so big?  According to Jesus it's about where/how we start. Culture wants us to start with the facts. Jesus wants us to start with love, lead with mercy and then address the facts (all of them).  Culture starts with facts which are then used to claim an exemption from mercy and then their reactions are called love (in our day "tough love"). Jesus will have none of it.  The cultural leaders were all about their understanding of accurate conclusions and Jesus was and is all about understanding "I desire mercy not, sacrifice." The result of culture's emphasis is the condemning of the innocent. The result of Jesus' emphasis is a way forward and hope for all.

A - I was groomed to keep my focus on being right.  Jesus is now shaping and reshaping me to keep my focus on loving.  It's not that accuracy has no place; it's just that it can never have the most important place. Jesus insists that I accept a transformation in my thinking (repentance in the actual meaning of the word).  If I want to save my life I must lose it; if I want to receive I need to give; if I want to lead I must serve and if I'm going to be accurate I must start at love and lead with mercy.  I welcome such transformations.  I repent because the kingdom of heaven is near :).

P - Lord who is love, truth, life, hope and the friend of sinners,

Today I welcome your continued recalibration in how I think, live, love and speak.  Please don't leave me to myself, even my best intended self. Instead, transform my very little life into all that you already have in mind to do … unto new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and that which is too wonderful for me. I'm asking this in Jesus' name.

Steve

Why We Can and Should Ask Anything

S - John 16:21-24, 26, 27 (NIV): "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. … In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God."

O - The basis for asking anything is love not the amount of faith we have for something.  According to Jesus faith the size of a mustard seed will uproot trees and toss them in the ocean (Luke 17:6).  So, faith is required but not in massive volume.  In fact, the faith for anything comes from the work all people are called to do every day and all day long … the work of believing the person of Jesus (John 6:29). We can ask anything because we are loved and are loving back. The asking involves more than obtaining something; it is a relational exchanged based on love.  Jesus tells us that not only he loves us but the Father loves us (and this before the cross) and will respond to us in love. Love will not always answer yes to the request but it will always be present to the one making the request.  Love not only forms the basis for the request but for the conclusion of the request whether it is granted or denied.  

A - Faith to ask and receive anything is not primarily inspired by God's greatness but by his love for us.  It's easy to admit he can do anything because he's God. The real issue in asking and receiving is will he, would he, do such for me.  Jesus is assuring me and all who follow that he will.  His love and willingness to both hear and respond to my/our requests is why we may confidently ask anything.  His love is limitless; like his power, wisdom and all the other attributes he possesses in himself. He has set his affection on me/us and will not change his mind.

P - Only God who loves,

Thank you for loving and wanting and calling us to yourself and to believe.  I am asking for an increase in faith which is your gift to us and for the love to receive and engage it.  Let me engage you as you wish me too … asking anything unto the joy of seeing and being with you.  I yield to your awesome brilliance, limitless power, extreme goodness and relentless love.  I am praying in Jesus' name.

Steve

The Deadly Drift of Distraction

S - Hebrews 2:1-3 (NIV): "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him."

O - Drifting away … slipping … stray … the Greek is a compound word παραῤῥυέω: to be carried past, glide past, a thing that escapes me or slips my mind. The point is that a tragic conclusion does not always begin with something intentionally rebellious or overtly dangerous.  Distraction, the failure to keep the main thing the main thing (note: the person of Jesus is the main thing) became the inspiration for self-disqualification: a stubborn refusal to believe, an insistence on doing things one's own way; a logic which ends in accusing God and excusing self. The good news from heaven is a person not information; a person not a promise; a person not a principle; a person not a plan.  Jesus, the person not the concept, is the remedy to this ever-present danger and the help all humans need.

A - Jesus presents his followers with only five "be on your guard against" statements.  Be on your guard against: the yeast of the Pharisees; all kinds of greed; false Christs and false teachers; human beings and distraction. He wouldn't have warned his closest friends and followers if there was no real danger.  For these five, he is the remedy and the preventative. He's not a vaccine … he's daily bread, a daily dose of life, truth, hope, faith, forgiveness, light, power.  He does it this way because we weren't created to perform but to love; to be in an ongoing relationship.  He created us for interdependence.  We need him and we need each other.  This is the only known way to prevent and/or recover from the deadly drift Scripture warns us of.  Today, I'll gladly live out the dose of him who is life!

P - Lord who is the message, who is salvation,

Thank you for wanting us to live in you not just to you; for wanting us in authentic relationship and for creating us for this very purpose. I admit this morning already found me drifting a bit but your loving kindness, your presence, and your relentless love has engaged me once again today while it is called today.  I am grateful to be near you, following you, back on course and focused.  Since you are giving me your irrepressible and vibrant life today let me, today while it’s called today, be a reason someone else would believe.

I love you back,

Steve

Cooperate but Don't Help

S - Ezekiel 34:15-16, 31 (NIV): "As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.  … I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.  …  You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.'"

O - The lost, injured, weak and scattered all need OUTSIDE help. They're in no position to bring about the change wanted and needed.  The Lord is not a shepherd by default but by desire.  He loves the sheep because he loves them.  Are we willing to believe him?  Will we yield to him, his presence and his ways or continue to insist on our own "well intended" self-interventions?

A - The Lord is my shepherd and he is unoffended that I am so easily lost, injured, weakened and scattered.  He's not mad about it at all. He's the Shepherd because he wants to be.  He doesn't need my help, I need his. What he wants is my cooperation, not my help.  Jesus tells us that the more we try and keep our lives we lose them. But if we will lose them to him he will find, save, heal and keep them.  I'm going to purposefully lose mine so he will keep it; I'll lay mine down so he will take it up and make of it everything it's already in his heart to do.  Today is going to be a beautiful day of sheep-like surrender … unto the life that is really life.

P - Lord Jesus,

Thank you for wanting to be my/our shepherd.  I admit you want my cooperation but not my help.  I admit that I'm not in control and you always are.  I admit that your ways are not like mine … they are not only way higher they are awesomely better.  I admit that you are calling me to yourself to follow and that you'll take care of the transformation I want and need. I say yes to you!

Loving you back,

Steve

A Method in the Madness

S - Matthew 2:13-15 (NIV): "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”"

O - Jesus is the focus of all the Scriptures (John 5:39-40).  The events of, and those surrounding, his birth fulfill prophecy after prophecy. Case in point, the second chapter of Matthew assumes one (his birth in Bethlehem) and describes the details of three others. The one noted above is found in Hosea 11:1. If we accept the source (God) and power (God) of prophecy fulfillment is never an issue.  What is an issue is timing (when) and method (how). The timing of Jesus' arrival was precise though unheralded (Galatians 4:4). Earth would not be able to predict, discover nor prevent his coming.  The method of fulfilling these prophecies (and almost all others) is what's a bit odd to our rational and religious minds. Jesus is called out of Egypt because Herod was trying to kill him.  Jesus is born in Bethlehem because Caesar issues a taxation decree (Luke 2:1-7). He will be called a Nazarene because Herod's son is a killer like his father and so heaven warns Joseph to avoid Judea (Matthew 2:22-23). This is why the work of God is always and only believing the person of Jesus and not a promise, plan, capacity, resource or principle (John 6:29). It's not that he isn't engaging all these dynamics; it's that we won't be able to keep up with HOW he'll do it.  Children are all about the presence of their parents not their methods.  Jesus tells the twelve and all (Matthew 18:2-3): “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

A - Thankfully, Jesus confirms the "rumor" that God really does have a will on earth and we're in it. He isn't offering or calling us to know how or when but that he's on it and working it.  We are invited and called to come near and stay near his person/presence.  When considering God's methods the Scriptures give me/us this encouragement and instruction:

·         “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9 NIV)

·         "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5, 6 NIV)

·         "And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:27, 28 NIV)

This is how Jesus came, lived and left our planet.  This is how God's will works on earth like it does in heaven. This is how I get to live day by day, even while it is called today.

P - Lord Jesus,

How you came is how you send us out; how you lived and loved is how you call us to live and love.  You promise your very self to be with us and in us so that we can actually engage your will on earth like they do in heaven. You call me to lean on you, your person and presence, NOT my understanding … even my understanding of your promises, principles, plans and capacities.  Jesus, I lean into and on you.  I welcome your presence with me and in me. You lead and work; I follow and only work with you--never for you.  Today, while it's called today, I say yes to YOU!

All my love,

Steve

Life IN Focus

S - 2 Timothy 1:1, 2:1 (NIV): "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus … You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

O - The correspondence is from a "father" to a "son", from a senior to a junior, from a quarterback to a team member, from one dear friend and brother to another.  It is written after years of being together and in the shadow of Paul's impending "departure" … code for execution--unjust, undeserved (just like Jesus).  The focus of the letter remains the focus for both of their lives … Jesus.  Notice that life and grace are IN Jesus.  They are not in verses of Scripture; accurate theological conclusions or corporately agreed upon creeds.  Paul and Timothy did not serve a mission or method or goal. They served a person.  Grace and eternal life did not come to them via what Jesus said nor by prophetic insights or scriptural promises.  Life (eternal, vibrant, irrepressible) and grace (amazing, indefatigable, sufficient) are IN Jesus and come from Jesus. 

A - I am not saved by what Jesus said or by what I think he said.  I am saved by Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead.  Grace is not found in the Scriptures or in truthful conclusions from them … it is found exactly as life is found; One Source, One Hope, One Savior, One Friend of the whole world. Jesus never called one person to a cause … only to himself.  Follow Me is the call (money, missions (causes/projects) and methods all want to divide us). Today I will follow him who is life … receiving the grace that is in him.  Today will be a very good day! 

P - Lord who is life,

I am very grateful to be loved by you … first, most and forever.  I am very grateful to NOT be called to a cause or mission or goal. Today I run to you for life and welcome your life and grace to flow into and to come out of me.  I'll stay near and follow … all the rest is up to you.  I do love you back.  Whatever is in your heart to do today my answer is yes.  Jesus, I am yours.

Steve

No Background Check Allowed

S - Romans 3:27-31 (NIV): " Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law."

O - Since God is not just the God of Jews but the God of Gentiles he is also not just the God of Christians but of all.  Culture, religion (Christianity included), ethic moorings and genealogical decent are all non-starters.  They are not and never were the point.  This does not nullify the Scriptures (Old and New Testaments) it upholds them. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28)."

A - Jesus tells the world (John 10:16): "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." No matter what "pen" I hail from … he has others that are not of the pen I'm from.  Jesus never called, and never calls, a person to a particular "sheep pen" … he calls all people to himself.  "Follow me" is his invitation and command. "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27)."   I am very pleased to be following him and to be discovering so many other "pens" with those who are doing the same. Following the person of Jesus really is the point; this alone is the beginning and the end (cf. Matthew 4:18-19, John 21:21-22) because he is the beginning and the end.

P - Shepherd of the Sheep,

Today is my only day to follow, to stay near, to listen and to love you back.  I am excited to think of all the sheep following you across the breadth of the whole earth.  I'm grateful for all you're allowing me to see and do with you.  Today, only Friend and Shepherd of the whole world, please cause your life to come into me and out of me so that I might be a reason another could believe.

Grateful for the work of believing,

Steve