In today’s reading the treachery of Jacob’s sons (Gen. 34:1-31) I believe is an example of the “church” taking a good thing of God and using it for evil.
In the story found in today’s reading the sons of Jacob use circumcision to seek revenge. But at other times in church history, we’ve seen churches sell “forgiveness,” in fact this still happens. We know of churches that expect a financial offering when a prayer is prayed, in order for it to be “heard.”
But I also think of my own denominations history, we took and some still do take the beautiful doctrine of the sanctuary and turned into a tool to breed fear and thus encourage submission to a certain belief system.
We’ve maybe at times taken our knowledge of the Sabbath and rather than using it to teach the beauty of the character of Jesus we’ve taught it as, “see we’re right and you’re wrong.” So the Sabbath has been a tool of arrogance.
It is sad that we (collective church throughout history) repeat maybe not in such dramatic ways, but still repeat the sins of Jacob’s sons. Misusing God’s gift for our ultimate end!
This story can be read and we can be shocked and move quickly by it, or we can pause and ask, “have I done the same?” and if the answer is “yes” let us repent in our hearts and then thank Jesus for grace.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Judges 17-21
Human worship is not just a problem in Hollywood or Washington D.C. it is a problem in the church as well and this is one of the issues Paul addresses in these first couple chapters of his letter to the church in Corinth.
It seems division has arisen in the church based on which church members are connecting themselves to Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, and some were getting it right, “I am of Christ.”
Paul points out the foolishness of this argument with two quick rhetorical questions,
“Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ” -1 Corinthians 1:13b,c
This should end such a silly debate.
Unfortunately this debate continues, it looks different, none of us anymore say, “I am of Doug Batchelor” or “I am of Dwight Nelson” or “I am of Ted Wilson” “Randy Roberts” or whomever, but it still continues.
But we show a similar internal reality as the church in Corinth when we buy hook-line-and-sinker whatever these individuals may say not because they are good teachers or because we have tested what they’ve said for ourselves, but simply because they agree with our “traditional” line of thinking.
We all have our favorites, including myself, but let us never be of anyone but Jesus!
Jesus who was crucified for us!
Jesus whose name we were baptized in!
Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 32-35
This is probably not new to any of you, but for some reason I saw the parable that begins chapter 20 in an entirely different light than I had previously.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did]the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last.” -Matthew 20:1-16
I’ve always looked at this parable in three ways:
While all three of these points I believer are true.
It hit me tonight I believe the main point of the parable is a rebuke against salvation by works.
Why are the early servants grumbling, because they worked harder and they are under the misconception that the reward is due their “works.” They don’t realize that salvation is based on Jesus being generous (gracious).
Jesus isn’t rebuking hard work, he’s rebuking those that think this should “earn” them something.
A second parable that struck me in this reading,
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” -Matthew 21:28-32
Jesus is not saying it is better to have the greed of a tax collector or participate in the immorality of a prostitute. He is saying it is better to be those things and really come to Jesus than to be a “Christian” and never really come to Him in your heart.
Folk that truth strikes me. It reminds me to keep watch over my own heart, but it also encourages me to pray for the pew sitters that have never truly come in their hearts fully sold out to Jesus!
I was blessed by today’s reading I hope you were too and if there are insights you saw that I missed or want to comment on mine feel free to leave a comment!
Tomorrow’s Reading: 1st Corinthians 1 & 2 (we finished Romans we’re now onto a new Pauline Epistle)
These chapters were all wonderful! There is one section I want to point out that I greatly appreciated and it reminded me of something God has taught me over the years, but before I get to that I want to share one other point I noticed several times throughout the chapters.
Over and over again The Lord basis His authority to speak as He does upon Him being the almighty and sole Creator. Is it any wonder that the devil attacks The Lord as Creator maybe more than any other aspect of His divine role? Let us not join the devil in his attacks my theistic evolution friends.
Okay so now to the portion of Isaiah 40 I want to address. It is not the verses that so often are quoted and rightly so from Isaiah 40,
“Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.” -Isaiah 40:30, 31
A beautiful passage but not the text I want to focus on in this post.
In this post I want to look at,
“A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.” -Isaiah 40: 6-8
This text is humbling for me as a person, but especially as a pastor. Why especially as a pastor? I have known many pastors that have been “wounded” when a church moves on so quickly after they are gone. I can understand this, many of us sacrifice everything for the sake of the church for sometimes years and then when it is announced the pastor is moving on the church mourns for a day or two and then almost immediately forms a new search committee, I can understand how this hurts an ego. I’ve also seen how some pastors are almost bitter at the pastor that comes after them. In the immediacy of a new pastor often times it seems like the “new” guy or gal is more loved than the previous and the excitement that the other pastor didn’t see in his/her last few years is suddenly there, that can also be wounding. What does any of this have to do with Isaiah 40:6-8?
In my ministry I’ve tried to remind myself and I’ve tried to remind my associates and I’ve tried to remind colleagues that will listen, the churches we serve in are Jesus’ they were often times here before us and if Jesus doesn’t come soon they’ll be here long after us and then I usually say, “we need to remember the movement the church is bigger than all of us! Therefore we need to always remember we are replaceable and we will be replaced when God sees fit.”
I believe Isaiah 40:6-8 endorses this thought. If Jesus doesn’t come I will wither away and no matter how great some may think I am now or how horrible some may think I am now, all of that will also wither with succeeding generations and the only thing that ultimately lasts is the Word of God. The truth of God.
Therefore if the truth of God ultimately is the only thing that remains what should I spend my time building up? Me? Or that which will remain long after me? The foundation laid through God’s truth!
Isaiah 40: 9-11 then lays out what this everlasting truth is I should preach ’till I wither away,
“Get yourself up on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news,
Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;
Lift it up, do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might,
With His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him
And His recompense before Him.
11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” -Isaiah 40:9-11
Good news which encompasses:
I will fade but this stuff will remain. The movement of our Lord is bigger than any of us therefore me must live and work to make Jesus better known and better loved through that which will last forever His Word before we wither and fade away.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 20-22
Another reading in Job and again the view of God is a ‘bit disturbing. Oh how patient God was…is!
But in today’s reading there was something that ministered to me, it actually reminded me of a memory in which I was ministered to and taught a valuable ministry lesson.
“I have heard many such things;
Sorry comforters are you all.
3 “Is there no limit to windy words?
Or what plagues you that you answer?
4 “I too could speak like you,
If I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And shake my head at you.
5 “I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.” Job 16:2-5
This ministered to me because Job makes a point we should all remember when speaking to or about others and their situation. It is always easy to be critical of the manager from the cheap seats.
Job says to his “friends” if I was pain free as you are. If i still had my family like you do. If I still had my possessions like you do, then I could talk with the confidence that you have…in other words, “hey y’all, you don’t understand my situation, so ’till you’ve been in my shoes you don’t realize how little your words help.”
He even sarcastically says or at least that is the tone I hear in my head,
“And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.”
I hear it sarcastically because his “friends” think they are helping him out by speaking and giving him all this advice but really what might have been best is what they did at the very beginning, just sit in silence.
I learned this truth many years ago…
I got dumped by a girl in college, it caught me off guard and it truly laid waste to my heart. One Sabbath afternoon not to long after that I was with a bunch of my friends eating a Sabbath meal together, our mutual friends, my ex and I (she wasn’t there), and I was sick with sadness that she wasn’t there, so I slipped away into another room, I thought unseen. I sat down in this dark room on the edge of this bed, put my head in my hands and cried, sobbed really. Not too many minutes later my friend Evie came in the room. She sat down next to me on the edge of the bed, put her arms around me and I cried even harder into her shoulder. I would guess that at least 10 minutes maybe even 15 minutes went by before I really collected myself, when I did she gave me one last tight squeeze then got up and walked out of the room. From the moment she came in and sat down next to me ’till the moment she left 10-15 minutes not a single word was spoken, and that memory is what I remember as the most comforting and encouraging moment of that period of my life.
And from that moment I learned the ministry of silent presence.
Job’s friends are talking thinking they are helping, but they are not where he is at in that moment.
What would have really brought him comfort would have been silent presence.
Maybe today’s reading can be an important reminder to all of us that our words don’t always comfort, sometimes they injure.
Let us practice the ministry of silent presence.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Isaiah 40-44
All three psalms in today’s reading were beautiful, but truly there is a reason The 23rd Psalm is one of the most beloved scriptures in all the Bible. And as I read it again today, it still stirred in my soul!
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
-Psalm 23 (KJV)
The central theme of this passage is that we are not abandoned by God even when this world is tough. The Psalm does not promise ease, in fact it assures us of the exact opposite and yet in spite of the turmoil, with The Lord as our shepherd it will feel like we are already dwelling in His house.
Every line of this Psalm has gravity. Read it very slowly and discover how each point is speaking to some aspect of your life.
Today the line “I shall not want” is what stirred my heart. The more I have of Jesus the less material things I want for myself, the less emotional want I need from others to make me feel good about myself. The more I have of Jesus the less I want this world!
I want more of Jesus because I want to want less!
What line or lines spoke to you?
Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 15, 16