JANUARY 5, 2020

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

GENESIS 12-14

1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.^a

3I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”^b(12:1-3)

MATTHEW 5:1-26

14“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

JOURNAL 

Abram is called to follow God and picks up his entire life and sets out in obedience. 

Jesus begins the sermon on the mount...this has always been to me the part of the Bible that I really believe should be read again and again. It is Jesus' sermon. He begins by listing all those that are blessed. The list does not include the wealthy or the successful or the powerful. He states that those that are blessed are people that most would consider unfortunate or cursed. Those that mourn, poor in spirit and meek. I could never imagine a facebook post that stated that I am so blesssed because I really feel poor in spirit today or I am so blessed because I am mourning the loss of a loved one. 

Yet Jesus begins his sermon in this way. Why? I think it is because Jesus wanted his audience to to realize that the things that most people consider blessings...are not truly blessings. True blessings come from God and God alone, true blessings are things we cannot provide for ourselves. The people then that appreciate them the most are people who are in despair, who are lonely, who are trapped and see no way out. Jesus came to save the worst in us, not congratulate us on our accomplishments. 

He then moves on to state that we are blessed when the world hates us and we are persecuted. Verse 14-15 then state that we are to be shining examples of his love for the rest of the world to see.Wow...what an opening statement, what a humbling statement and one that slaps me right in the face. Too often I judge my happiness in terms of worldly success or acceptance. Too often I desire to be affirmed and commended by others rather than being content in God's love. Too often my joy is hidden or squashed.

Father thank you for the wake up call...thank you for this sermon spoken 2000 years ago...thank you for being a light of love in my life that the world can never remove. 

 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

COLOSSIANS 3:23-24

JANUARY 4, 2020

“When we set about accounting for a Napoleon or a Shakespeare or a Raphael or a Wagner or an Edison or other extraordinary person, we understand that the measure of his talent will not explain the whole result, nor even the largest part of it; no, it is the atmosphere in which the talent was cradled that explains; it is the training it received while it grew, the nurture it got from reading, study, example, the encouragement it gathered from self-recognition and recognition from the outside at each stage of its development: when we know all these details, then we know why the man was ready when his opportunity came.” 
― Mark Twain

GENESIS 9-11

6“Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans shall their blood be shed;

for in the image of God

has God made mankind.(9:6)

MATTHEW 4

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted^a by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^b ”

JOURNAL 

The spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted. So God led him to a place where he would be challenged. This is training, this is testing, this is what any good coach and every good athlete accepts and does themselves. Willingly to encounter difficulty and face challenges. This is how we were designed to grow and learn. God is raising up Jesus, he is training him for the challenges that will come.

It makes so much sense and yet I never thought of it as being an intentional plan of God. God led him there, this was not a surprise attack, God was training him and preparing him. The necessary part of that training was an encounter with Satan with temptations that would test his resolve, his motives and his mission. These questions needed to be faced and answered before his true mission could begin.  

8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’^e ”

11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

MATTHEW 4:8-11

JANUARY 3, 2020

“The saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there's nothing to make it last.” 
― Nicholas Sparks, Dear John

GENESIS 6-8

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.(6:9)

MATTHEW 3

16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

JOURNAL 

God's desire is for us to be righteous. He forgives us and we have grace but his desire is for us to pursue him, obey him and live holy, righteous lives. I sometimes get complacent with the idea of grace. I sometimes mail it in because I know God will forgive me. Yet in really thinking about it...to do so is taking advantage of God, his love and his grace. To do so really hurts me. It wounds my own integrity and my passion for life. God is constant and his love never fails. To realize this and to not let it transform my life, my actions, my attitude, is ultimately to not really believe it. 

When I really think about it...the reason I don't live with a spirit of gratitude and humility it is because I don't fully believe that it matters. I've let circumstances and my experiences in the past cloud my judgement on the reason and purpose of obedience. There have been times when I've been obedient and life didn't work out the way I wanted. There also have been times when I've intentionally been disobedient and it did work out. 

Yet what I have noticed is that obedience always comes with the benefit of joy. In the end in some fashion or form, when I obey...I feel and know God's love and his approval. In those times, the circumstances and the success or failure really don't matter.  His love is truly enough.

28Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

29He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

30Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

31but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

ISAIAH 40:28-31

JANUARY 2, 2020

“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” 
― Augustine of Hippo

If Jesus didn't think he could handle life without knowing the Scripture inside and out, what makes you think you can?

- Timothy Keller

GENESIS 3-5

8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”(3:8-10)

MATTHEW 2

19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

JOURNAL 

The tweet put out by Timothy Keller got all kinds of backlash...people saying that this causes people to worship the Bible and use it for harm and saying that all that really matters is love and that Jesus was reading from the Torah and not the New Testament. So crazy how people can get so out of whack in their own thinking. To me this all smells of trying to defend the fact that they probably never have really read the whole Bible. My question is how can someone judge and question and challenge the authority of God if they have never really read the whole Bible.

It's like giving a book report on a book you haven't ever actually read. There are so many things in scripture that have troubled me, comforted me, puzzled me, convicted me...but in the end all of scripture together affirm my faith and educate me to an understanding of who God truly is...without this personal reading and study I truly feel I would be lost. 

Reading scripture is not an easy discipline, in fact most mornings I have no desire to read it. There are a multitude of other things that I would rather do, yet I know deep in my soul that I need it despite my surface feelings. I think this is true of most good things, they usually run contrary to our momentary feelings. Exercise, eating healthy, honoring truth, resolving conflict, loving others...all of these good things are hard because they often run contrary to our feelings. 

For me...this is why starting out with reading scripture is so critical to my heart and faith. Doing something I don't want to do out of obedience, starts my day in the right way and it prepares my mind for all the other hard things that naturally come my way each and every day. It doesn't mean that things get easier...actually sometimes things get harder and my contrary feelings seem to dig in harder and deeper. However it does prepare me and train me to do the hard things anyway. I have come to believe that this is God's way...doing so however always comes with reward...JOY, I never regret it and God's joy and love always make obedience worth the pain and frustration .

 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

EPHESIANS 2:4-10

JANUARY 1, 2020

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.” 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

GENESIS 1-2

1But for Adam^f no suitable helper was found. 21So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs^g and then closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^h he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called ‘woman,’

for she was taken out of man.”

24That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.(2:1-25)

MATTHEW 1

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,^f because he will save his people from their sins.”

JOURNAL 

A new decade, 100 years ago it was the beginning of the roaring 20's, economic prosperity abounded worldwide. It was a decade of fun and excess and technological advancement. The world war had ended and things were really good. I wonder how our decade will be viewed 100 years from now. 

Starting the year again reading the Bible really causes me to reflect on my place in this world. One thing that is evident from scripture is that God designed us to work together. We are here to help each other. Man and Woman are intended to be together, to work with each other and for each other. This is how God has designed it...this collaboration, this union is how we are intended to live. We are not designed to be alone, or to do things independently. We are designed to do them together. In Genesis, woman was created to help man. In Matthew, Joseph (Man) is asked to help Mary (Woman). There is an intended give and take that is good and righteous.

Yet in that there is also an intended independence that makes helping, loving and friendship possible. We are individuals intended to be united in a union that helps each of us yet we still are not to lose our own individuality. This is balance and this is what makes marriage work. Likewise it is the key to all relationships.

Thank you Father for another year, another decade. Help me to not get consumed with the future but rather to cherish and make the most of each moment of each day. Knowing that in doing so, I acknowledge your authority and trust you with tomorrow as I make the most of today.

4“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’^a 5and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’^b ? 6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 

MATTHEW 19:4-6