Posts Tagged ‘faith’

Day 312: Jeremiah 28:1-30:24; 2 Timothy 3:1-4:8 — Under siege

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Judea: Destruction will be completed and no safe place exists, you did not listen, were unfaithful to God. Exiles in Babylon: These hard times are how God preserves the remnant. Be faithful to Him, bloom where you are. Demonstrate that you are God’s people in these difficult times. Jeremiah echoes a theme which brings a little comfort and hope: God will restore the fortunes of Jacob, an alliterative short phrase: shav sh’vooth. It can mean restore fortune and at the same time return the captives; an intensely meaningful promise. You are exiled captives now, you are not where you want to be, but God will take care of that and fulfill His promises, just wait 70 years.

Perhaps you are there now: A bad place in life, all chaos and no answers. Perhaps bad choices or sin led to it; perhaps the sin of others. So unexpected. Faith-breaking. Times come where in the midst of trouble God preserves us for a future only He can give us, a promise one day to set the captives free — if we listen. In the midst of that which is deplorable may be where God will have us show trust by not holding our breath for the deliverance we expect and want, but go on living and be a blessing where we are, where He teaches us and preserves us for what must come next. I do not like saying that, it is very discomfitting, the KJV writer might say. I want things to go smoothly and ride out the storm safely. But there no guarantees on what we want to happen, just trust that the will of God brings the only real life.

Meanwhile, back in Ephesus, Timothy is having a tough time as the youthful evangelist. These folks are really tough! And they are the Christians! Remember your heritage of faith. Remember your teachings. Rely on the word of God which you know, breathed by Him into the holy writers and witnesses. You are going to have to accept the fact that you will be ridiculed, rejected, and seen as ignorant. But you know who you are and Whose you are. Stand firm, 2 Timothy 2:19. Press forward and do the work and will of God when it’s easy and when it’s hard, when it seems the right thing to do and when no one thinks it’s the right thing to do.

How our faith comes under siege, our hearts torn by an unbelieving world. How chaos and sin can seek to undo us! A teacher of mine used to say, using the Greek terms, I have agonized a good agony, 2 Timothy 4:7. Therefore a crown! The “stephanos,” the winner’s crown for athletic competition. And everyone that agonizes that good agony can be a winner!!

Prayer: Holy Father, help me fight the good fight today, overcome sin by Your Spirit, wait Your deliverance. I want to win. Help me win for You. In Jesus name, amen.

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Day 150: John 5:17-30 — Wait wait wait…he said what?

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Have you ever sat through a lecture in school or at work and only halfway paid attention? You start to drift off into what you have to do later that day or think about what you’d rather be doing. Maybe I’m just a bad listener. It’s okay…I can admit it.

One of the things I do to help me concentrate more on the lesson at hand is to put myself in the audience of Jesus. To put myself in the moment. I can only imagine that when Jesus is speaking in John 5:17-30 that there were at least a few bad listeners. And with all bad listeners you occasionally hear a part of what the speaker said that makes you stop and think, “Wait wait wait…he said what?!”

In this passage Jesus is explaining his equality with God. I can only imagine the looks of confusion and then rage by some of the people. Imagine, for instance, if a man got up in front of our church and declared himself equal with God. Think about the reactions. How would you react? I’m sure not too differently than the people of Jesus’ time.

My hat is off to those people in Jesus’ day that believed. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy.

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Day 148: John 4:46-54 — Look at who Jesus is!

Friday, May 28th, 2010

This story (John 4:46-54) raises the question of the relationship between signs and faith. Everyone wants a great miracle. We want to see the power of God. We want great spectacular special effects or the whole thing is a dud. For John the person who interprets a miracle solely as a miraculous act will remain focused on and limited by the act itself. To forever be wondering why they or a loved one can’t experience the same miraculous performance. Do we just see water turned into wine, a deathly-ill boy revived, a miraculous feeding with bread? I think there is more. All this makes Jesus a great miracle worker. We can proclaim, “Look what Jesus can do.” Yet, the gospel is more than what Jesus can do. The gospel is about who Jesus is! He is the giver of abundant gifts (John 2:1-11) and the giver of life (John 4:46-54). Jesus points to who God is and there is the foundation of faith. To see God in Jesus’ actions of healing is to recognize the truth of the confession of John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.”

The official approached Jesus with only one thing on his mind. He was worried about his son. His son was at the point of death, and Jesus might be the one to heal him. His reasons for seeking Jesus were desperation and basic need. Yet he ended up receiving much more than he could have hoped for and, indeed, much more than he knew he needed. He received the gift of his son’s life and the gift of faith in Jesus. The official’s faith was evoked by Jesus’ love and the fact that the “The Word became flesh and lived among us.”

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Day 143: John 1:29-51 — Do You Believe?

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

What is the most exciting thing someone has ever told you? Maybe it’s when your wife told you that your life would change in nine months. Maybe it’s news about a new job or the day you got engaged. Exciting news is cause for celebration. What if Jesus himself told you that you were about to witness great things?

Turn with me to the Gospel of John. Jesus is calling his disciples and I think I could write a book about these men and their astounding faith. Andrew delivers a simple message — “We have found the Messiah” — to Simon and off they go. Let’s focus on John 1:43-51 and I would like to comment on Nathanael. What Jesus tells him is something that I have always found to be inspiring. John 1:50-51, Jesus tells him that because he believed, Nathanael would see greater things. In fact, he tells him that he will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Wow. Just wow. All because Nathanael believed.

Do you believe?

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Day 114: Luke 12:22-40

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Greetings to everyone!  When I read Luke 12:22-40 this time around, I ended up thinking about why Jesus came to earth in the first place.  Jesus chose to come down from the heavenly Father to show us how to do His will instead of our own selfish will, the will of the people, or the will of the government.  Put God’s will first and foremost, and eternity will be great, but you may find yourself doing some strange things on earth, like performing miraculous signs and wonders, teaching hungry hordes of people wandering like sheep without a shepherd, raising people from the dead, and dying painfully on a cross.

“Do not worry about your life,” Jesus says, because spiritual matters are more important than earthly issues, and your soul is more important than your flesh. God is in control, taking care of both.  If God takes care of ravens, lilies and grass, He will take care of us, too.  But there is this rebellion issue– WE of little faith!  We want good food, flavorful drinks (when water really is the best thing for us), nice clothes, large homes, and lots and lots of toys.  Now, these are all examples of my selfish will, not God’s will for my life.  The funny thing is, if we focus on God’s will and strive for His kingdom, Jesus says all these things will be given to us as well.  Note Jesus does not say I will ever earn them, but they will be given to me because it is the Father’s good pleasure to provide them in His kingdom.  But first, I must obey Him.  I must give up my rebellion, quit trying to do everything for myself and chasing after these things the nations of the world consider important.  I must submit, humbly bow to the Creator, and accept the gift He offers.

Jesus tells us not to be afraid, but I must admit I’m intimidated by the things God’s had ask others to do for Him.

Noah, build an ark on dry land. 
Abraham, sacrifice your son. 
Moses, lead my people out of Egypt. 
Joshua, march around the walls blowing trumpets. 
Samson, don’t cut your hair. 
David, kill a giant with a slingshot. 
Solomon, quit clinging to your wives in love.
Elijah, battle the prophets of Baal, only 400 to 1 odds.
Isaiah, prophecy poetically, and heal a boil with figs.
Jeremiah, do not pray for the welfare of this people, a rebellious house.
Ezekiel, eat this scroll.
Jonah, pay attention, don’t run away, now go save Nineveh.
Jesus, go down there and show them my love, and die trying.

To all of the rest of us, follow ME.

Ever noticed the difference between ‘Me’ and ‘We’ is the leading letter is turned upside down?   When we do what we want instead of what He wants, everything gets turned upside down.

Now, don’t be afraid, don’t worry about a thing.  Just have a little faith. (Gasp.)

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Posted in Discipleship, faith, Grace, Humility | 1 Comment »

Day 68: Mark 9:14-29 — “My Faith Doesn’t Work!”

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

I don’t know what to write. Normally, I have something that comes to mind. The only thing I can think of are all the times, I try to solve problems of faith and I fail. It may be a poor comparison, but I feel like the disciples sometimes. My faith doesn’t always work. I love this lesson (Mark 9:14-29), but I can’t seem to learn it. I head off from my preachers office ready to solve the faith problems of the world. I return with my head held low and all of my theological arguments wilt in the face of a father with a sick son. I go to Jesus in private and I ask Him, “Why?” I hear His words, “What about prayer Randy?” Oops. I forgot. I forget, we are in Jesus’ hands and things don’t go they way we plan. I forget that life is not about the solutions of all our problems but just the big one. Jesus solved that one on the cross, “Lord, help my unbelief!”

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Day 62: Mark 6:1-6 — Jesus Christ involved in a Scandal!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

This is an action news report. Jesus Christ, the proclaimed Son of God is involved in a scandal. In our contemporary world, we have become accustomed to these kind of reports. However, as I write these words, I feel a little uncomfortable. In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus goes back home and teaches. He does such a good job that his home town folks can’t believe it. They take offense and Jesus marveled at their unbelief. The interesting thing is that the word “offense” comes from a Greek word σκανδαλίζω (skandalízō), it is the word from which we get “scandal”. It can be translated as “a trap,” “stumbling block.” It is not often used with classical Greek writers. It is used more often in the Biblical text figuratively as a stumbling block to someone; to cause to stumble at or in something; or to give a cause of offense to someone. In Mark 6:3, it is used as a scandal of offense at Jesus and Jesus marvels at their unbelief (Mark 6:6).

Earlier, I said I was a little uncomfortable to say Jesus is involved in a scandal. I am not uncomfortable from the biblical standpoint because Jesus was involved in many scandals (e.g., the cross was a scandal). I am uncomfortable because the Christian faith seems to water down the scandal of the cross into a nice clean faith system. I am confused by our desire to attend church to experience a nice clean sanitized rendition of worship. Mark will use this word again with His disciples. They will stumble and fall away because of the cross (Mark 14:27). It was a scandal to believe in Christ. It was a radical change of life to follow Jesus. I wonder which Jesus we really worship? Is it Jesus the stumbling block or Jesus the pacifier that makes us all feel good? I am uncomfortable because I am afraid Jesus is no longer a scandal for we have already taken offense and run him out of town like his hometown did (Isaiah 8:14; Matthew 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 5:11).

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Day 61: Mark 5:21-43 — “Who Touched Me?”

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Have you ever been interrupted? I have! There are always interruptions in my day. There was a time in my life when I would lament over the fact that I could have finished all my work if it weren’t for the interruptions. In our reading of Mark 5:21-43, Jesus experiences some interruptions. I know traditionally, we like to talk about the miracle stories that happen. Yet, I was reading and became captivated by the interruptions. Jesus is interrupted by a father who has a sick daughter. Jesus leaves to help the father and then he gets interrupted by some woman touching him and his power is drained. Jesus stops and asks what the disciples think is an absurd question in the midst of a crowd…”Who touched my garment?” It is kind of like being at the end of a Texas football game when Texas A&M is being beat again. All the Aggies flee in shame and are pressing all around and you stop and ask, “which Aggie just touched me?”

Jesus stops in the midst of a crowd and the need to go save a little girl and renders a personal touch to a woman who has suffered for years. We ought to stop and put a little thought to this action. We live in a world of fast paced living that teaches us to ignore what we think is insignificant like faith. Jesus helps me to see our faith and others’ faith may be more important to him than a death of a child. That is hard to comprehend but then again Jesus overcomes death with resurrection, but he never makes us have faith. The advent of faith in a person seems more miraculous to me than the healing of a disease. I wonder if Mark wants us to see that too?

Oh by the way just for fun, the next time you are in a crowd and people are pressing in all around you, stop and yell, “Who touched me?”

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Day 11: Genesis 24:1-67; Matthew 8:14-34 — Whom do you follow: Jesus or pigs?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

“Make sure to get a wife for him from back home, those girls are the best; and not one like my brother had. He worried dad and mom nearly to death with her!”

Jesus, my wife is sick, can you help her?

Jesus, the seas are rough, can you save us?

Jesus, I have demons in my life too big for anyone to cast out.

Jesus, you bring too many changes to my life–look at all the pigs! You took them all! Would you please leave?

Tasks and obstacles appear to stop us on the way to a full life, or even in the seemingly mundane task of “getting through the day.” And then there are the big ones: I want my children to marry the spouse that will help them be faithful to God. I want my wife to be well. I want the seas of life to be calm today. I want my demons of fear and self doubt to leave and go out of my life.

1. Eliezar made a promise, strange to us, but solemn to him and to Abraham, and then he prayed, prayed, prayed, and watched for the blessings in the goals he had to meet.

2. Jesus came into Peter’s home and healed his wife. Jesus was in the boat when the storm arose. Legion, Mark 5:9 , met Jesus and found the peace he needed.

3. Pigs, for others, were more important. Jesus appeared to change their lives to the point of taking away what they valued most.

Those crazy young people, yes, that was me one time, will meet someone and get married! And those worried parents, that’s me now, will pray that those kids find godly spouses. And our loved ones get sick; and we are beaten and bounced around by demons, mercilessly at times it would seem.

Jesus says: Follow me, look for me, even if you have no home to invite me into, no boat or car to take you to work, no strength to force life to be what you want it to be, no hope, no way to see the future. I will always be looking for you.

Do you say: Jesus, I will follow you, no matter what. I want you in my home, in my family, in my life. Or do you say: I don’t like all that change you bring, you ask too much from me. I will take the pigs.

Question:

How do I walk with Jesus in each day? What do I do when the issues, the needs, those storms and demons of life leave me hopeless and helpless? How do I make it through? What can I do to position myself in midst of the will of God?

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Posted in faith, Genesis, Matthew, Trust | 4 Comments »

Day 10: Matthew 7:21-8:13 Do You Think Or Do You Believe?

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

The summer heat was sweltering. I mean, the kind where your Mom made a fan out of the church bulletin and your Dad tugged at his collar – anything for a little relief. I couldn’t have been more than ten years old but I had heard of the man that was coming to preach that night. He sat quietly on the front pew of the little country church in Welch, Texas. The preacher was a big man and even though he hadn’t dispensed his fiery sermon yet, he was covered in sweat. The air conditioner in that tiny church was doing all it could and the good folks of that community had gone home to get box fans out of closets to bring to church to try to move some air around. Ahhhhh…..gospel meetings in the summer.

Following the song after the main prayer, the preacher ambled his way to the pulpit. I remember thinking that all in the world I wanted to do was run outside to try and get a little bit of the evening air and play in the tractor tire that was out back of the church. Maybe grab some homemade ice cream out of the fellowship hall that was waiting patiently for the congregation that evening. Meanwhile, this particular preacher had no problem cutting through the sound of an old window unit squeaking and no less than eight box fans roaring in the back of the room. He paced the floor. He roared. He got more red in the face. Yes! Surely this man knew what he was speaking about! He roamed the aisle between the two rows of pews. Somehow he managed to almost turn purple in the face. His voice shook the roof some more. I moved just a little closer to my Dad.

And then it happened……

He stopped and looked at me. In fact, he scared me to death. I felt like I had done something wrong. All of a sudden, visions of tractor tires and ice cream vanished like a leaf in a hurricane. I stared right back at him as slowly walked towards me. Had he read my mind? Did he know about the ice cream? He lowered his voice and almost whispered the words, “Son, will you go get me a cup of water?” I jumped and was off like a shot to the water fountain armed with a Dixie cup.

From then on, I listened to every word he said. I was struck by his delivery. He was passionate and sincere. He had my full attention. On the way home I asked my Dad what all he was talking about. Dad explained to me that the preacher was talking about living a life in faith. It wasn’t about saying you believed in God. It was about believing in God. It was about living that kind of faith. He explained the difference to me. It is something I’ve never forgotten and it’s something that I try to live every day.

Jesus knew how to get people’s attention too. In fact, the message in Matt 7:21-8:13 was sure to have everyone on the edge of their seat. The Pharisees were adamant that their actions would save them. It was all about style over substance. There are more than a few examples of this throughout the New Testament. Jesus’ message was so radical to them. Pray in secret? Matt 6:5-15 is very clear that our faith is one of a very personal nature. Jesus listens to our heart, not our mouth.

The question and answer session I had with my Dad on the way back to our home that night is one that I still hold very near to my heart. What was the difference between thinking or saying you believed in God as opposed to believing in God? Believing is an action. It is almost tangible. I don’t get into boats that I think will float. I get into boats I BELIEVE will float. It is more earnest. It is pure. It is alive and breathing. We have two outstanding examples in this passage that demonstrates what our faith needs to be – it is one that doesn’t THINK God can do all things. It is one that BELIEVES God can do all things.

Matt 8:1-4 is fantastically simple and powerful. A man with nothing to lose and everything to gain simply says, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” This is a man who believes in Jesus and his power. Immediately he is cured.

Matt 8:5-13 is another account of how simple our faith needs to be – just believe. Pay attention to the last paragraph of the story. “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” His servant was healed that very hour.

We will encounter this passage in a few days but I believe it ties in well. In Matt 9:27-31 Jesus is approached by two blind men. Jesus asks a very simple question – “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Read on for the ending (I promise you’ll like it).

Question:

Today I challenge you to question yourself. Do you believe that God can do all things or do you think that he can?

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