Focus on the Cross

 

Focus on the Cross

(Pause for a moment of reflection with me on the Gospel text for the Second Sunday in Lent)

John 3:1-17

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203%3A1-17&version=ESV

Take a look at the passage above from John 3. It's about life. It's about birth. It's about heaven. It's about sacrifice. It's about love. It's about choice. It's about focus.

A religious leader of the day, Nicodemus, came in the dark of night to have a talk with Jesus. Word had spread about Jesus and his ministry on earth. Nicodemus wanted to see for himself the man that all the talk was about, Jesus. Nicodemus came to see Jesus to have a first hand experience. The encounter with Jesus would result in Nicodemus great admiration of Jesus, and Nicodemus would stand as a friend of Jesus. Nicodemus recognized that God was acting through Jesus with a different ministry, so he wanted to find out for himself. But he came in the darkness. He came in darkness and was to witness Light.

Just as Nicodemus came in the dark, I too walk in the dark. I walk in the dark and can see the Light of God in Jesus. I walk in flesh and I walk in spirit as well. 

Jesus wastes no time and jumps right at Nicodemus and tells him that to see the kingdom of God, one must be born anew or in other words, born from above. Well, Nicodemus hadn't even posed a question yet and it's like Jesus went straight to the point of everything! It was after this first verbal volley of Jesus that Nicodemus now had a huge question. Huh? What are you talking about, Jesus!

First off, how do I see the Kingdom of God? To see the Kingdom I need to enter the Kingdom and once I enter the Kingdom of God I see eternal life. So, yea, I want to see this kingdom!

So, Jesus lobs another verbal bomb towards Nicodemus about being born anew. Some interpreters term this, born from above. Then Jesus takes it even further with a little spin on the ball about flesh and spirit. So, what's it all about?

Jesus bids me to break away into a new realm of being. To be born anew. New birth comes from God, not from man. All life is from God, but this new life is born not of the will of man, but of the will of God. This is a new life, born anew, begotten from above and from the beginning.

What? I've lived a life and made myself into what I am at present. How can I undo all that? All that life stuff is done and over with and a part of my past that I can't just dump. 

It seems in these words of Jesus, that I need to be a new man. God doesn't want to tweak me here or there or fiddle around with me. God wants something new! Something without a past. Something that has the new human smell to it.

And then it happens! The Spirit blows and dull flesh becomes spirit through the action of God. God chooses me, God chooses you, God chooses Nicodemus. God acts.

But just how does God act?

Well, that's where the "Focus on the Cross" jumps out at me from Jesus recollection of the Israelites in the wilderness seeking healing as Moses lifted the serpent up on a pole. I need to understand Jesus crucified. 

As I Focus on the Cross, It's God's action alone. On that cross I see the love of God acting out on my behalf, shedding his blood to shed my sin into the eternity of gone for good, in order that I can live anew. 

It's upon that cross that I am called to eternal life here, now and forever. Called out all shiny and new. Called out to a new life to live into that vast open area of time and space beyond imagination. 

Look at Jesus on that cross. Focus on the cross. It's God's action alone. On that cross, life will grow from less to more and from more to most. Focus on that cross and see flesh to spirit to something entirely new. Focus on that cross and see Christ, my Savior, your Savior. See Jesus and listen to his words of forgiveness, his words of grace and his words of paradise to the thief at his side. Trust in the Word you and I hear as you and I Focus on the Cross. 

And, as you and I Focus on the Cross... guess what? You don't have to give your heart to Jesus. No! Jesus does it all for you. Jesus snatches your heart right from the middle of your chest and claims your heart as his own. That's Love! 

Focus on the Cross and see healing, salvation and life born anew, from above, in the spirit. See Jesus action and your new life, right there on that cross. Focus on the Cross.

Focus on the Cross --- Will you run away? Or will you run towards? Towards a new life prepared for you with no action on your own. No strings attached. Free! A free life in the eternal Kingdom of God beginning right now, and lasting forever and ever.

Yes, Focus on the Cross and see a Call, a Promise, a Journey and a totally easy Response.

"We love, because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16-17

Thank you Jesus for causing Nicodemus, and me, to stumble through the darkness to encounter your Light and your Love, to reveal our new life in the Kingdom of God... today... tomorrow... and forever - Amen.

Get outta here!

 Get outta here!

Reflection on Matthew 4:1-11

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%204%3A1-11&version=ESV

Be sure to attend a church this weekend. Perhaps, this reflection will apply to the reading of the day. Listen carefully for God's Word spoken through the pastor, priest, deacon, or minister, to apply in your walk with Jesus this week.

This passage is the Temptation of Jesus. Jesus having been baptized by John, in which the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove goes into the wilderness. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to search his heart and to test him.

That seems funny to me that the Spirit would lead Jesus to testing. I can understand the searching of the heart. After something significant takes place in my life, many times, I pause to pray, reflect and think upon the change that is happening to me and in me. But, to be tested? Well, maybe that's what the searching is really about... a testing of sorts. 

Major life changes, like marriage, death of a loved on, a new birth in the family, addictions, a new joy, selling or buying a major purchase like a car or house, retirement or career changes; cause us to stop and think. I stop and think about how I will be tested in this new situation that I'm about to enter.

I think this may have been how the Spirit was moving Jesus to search and be tested. But by the devil? Seems rather extreme. But, consider what Jesus was about to do. Jesus was beginning a ministry led by his Father that would change the entire course of creation as was known at that time. Life would be given to all people through the ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus' stark mission of salvation was before him now. A searching and a testing, were perhaps just what Jesus needed at that time.

Did Jesus need this searching and testing? I think maybe you and I are the reason that this passage is before us, not so much for Jesus sake, but for our sake, to observe temptation and get an idea of how to respond. God overcomes temptation, but me? Temptation is a tough one for me. I don't overcome. I need God to help and guide me in the face of temptation. And I fail at temptation often. 

So, into the wilderness Jesus proceeds, to search his soul and to be tested. Sounds a little like how God led the Israelites from Egypt into the wilderness to be tested. God leads me into the wilderness to teach and show me my sin and to teach me how much I need God. I can't survive in the wilderness on my own. I need God to lead and guide me through the wilderness to cross the river through the grace of God's love and salvation to live forever with him. I need God in the wilderness, through the wilderness and on the other side of the river. My life depends on God. Not on my own actions of saving my own skin. I wouldn't even be able to provide water or food for myself, let alone eternal life!

This temptation was a fork in the road, so to speak. In each temptation, Jesus has a choice to make. And, in addition, Jesus' temptation didn't end in the desert. Jesus was tempted throughout his ministry, suffering and death.

There's a little bit of set up to this temptation passage. In temptation, like with Adam, Adam becomes aware of his nakedness. Adam had sinned before God. Adam wanted to be like God and to have that great communion with God, but Adam went about it all wrong. Adam can't have communion with God because he does something to be like God. That's not how it works. God wants communion with Adam, but Adam didn't need to do something to get this communion. God gave communion to Adam because God wanted to, and Adam buying into Satan's temptation that Adam could be like God by eating a forbidden fruit, turned that communion with God all around. By eating the fruit, Adam thought his action would bring communion with God and he would be like God. That's the decision here. Adam didn't need to eat fruit. God already had given Adam and Eve life in Paradise. And life in Paradise didn't take any action of Adam's part or Eve's part. It was a gift from God. So in falling to Satan's temptation, death came into this world. Death and separation from God. 

So in Adam we have death. In Satan's testing, Adam lost it all but in Jesus temptation, Jesus regained it all. Both Adam and Jesus were men or human, but Jesus was both human and God. So, through a human in Adam came death and through a human in Jesus came life. God forgives.

Jesus was tested three times in the wilderness in this account. 

The first test was Doubt. Jesus, are you really the Son of God? If so, make these stones into bread and eat. Here Jesus refused the bread, but later Jesus would use bread to feed thousands of people. God can sustain life without bread or anything else. Jesus would use bread once again at the Last Supper to be his body, given for you and me, for the forgiveness of sin. So, Jesus overcame this temptation and he really showed Satan and all the world, that he was, and has been and will always be both man, and the Son of God.

The second temptation was about trust. Jesus, do you trust God? Well, sure. Jesus trusted the mission that the Father had given him. Jesus knew that this mission of salvation and the gracious gift of life for all creation would not come easy. Jesus was about to bring life out of death. His own suffering and death. Another fork in the road of decision. Jesus trusted the Father and the mission to bring life out of death.

The third temptation was about power. Who, Jesus, do you worship? Do you, Jesus, like Adam, worship your own actions? Well, sort of, but for a totally different reason. Adam worshipped himself. Jesus worships the Lord God, in that all salvation and life comes through God, not man.

And with this... Get outta here Satan! 

Jesus mission and call from the Father with the guidance of the Holy Spirit are clear yet difficult for even the man of Jesus but easy for God. 

So as you and I walk through the temptations in the wilderness of life and sin and death; I will look to Jesus in the wilderness. I will search my soul and think on my temptation testing. I will follow Jesus and trust in his power and grace to lead me, feed me, fill me with God's Spirit. Straight out of the water of my baptism, into my daily repentance of my sin, to trust in what God has done for me through the ministry, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in order that I may live forever with God in his Kingdom, in communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... today... tomorrow... and forever.

Lord, not my will, but your will be done. 

Thanks be to God!

You Jackass!

Matthew 5:21-37

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A21-37&version=ESV

Read it! You must... you are convicted as well as I!

Boy, oh boy, am I ever guilty of murder! I murder every day! 

In this passage Jesus convicts every one of us of sin. In just a couple of verses Jesus spells out how I murder, commit adultery, ruin marriage and lie. I'm guilty and Jesus reveals to me how, in my actions and thoughts, I deserve hell and eternal damnation. And, I'm not alone... You also are guilty of every one of these sins as well!

How many times in a day have I killed someone by my sneers and contempt? Idiot! Fool! Jackass! You no good two bit pea picking boneheaded yellow bellied sap sucking idiot you! Have you spread any gossip? Have you spread a lie? Have you lusted for someone? What inner thoughts have you had that convict you? 

Murder is a result of anger. And the anger of my sin both involves my flesh and my spirit. My desire is just as bad as my actions. 

Jesus in this passage reveals the harsh truth of the Law. I tend to scrub down the Law to make myself "OK" with the Law. It's easy for me to rationalize the Law and make myself "good," at least good in my own mind. But, Jesus in this passage points out my egotistic faults and declares me guilty! In this passage, Jesus expects perfection. 

I'm NOT perfect! Far from it! So, Jesus points me to repent, turn and realize that I need a Savior. I can't live up to these expectations. In these expectations, I certainly murder, lust, lie and ruin marriage. What about any other sins that I commit?

Even though I hate to hear these words of Jesus, I realize that Jesus does not contradict the Law. In fact, as Jesus points out my sins of murder, adultery, lies, lust, gossip and so forth; Jesus points me to the altar. I hear Jesus tell me to act now. To give up my inner thoughts to the altar. To praise the Law for convicting me of my sin and my sinful thoughts of thinking things are ok, or are not so bad. Sex outside of marriage, sex before, during with another person, cruel shouts of anger towards another person, lies, lies and more lies. All disgusting things for which I need to admit that I'm a sinner in need of God's grace and forgiveness. 

Oh how I need to repent! Repent, then look at that cross on which Jesus died. He bled and died and exposed my sin and the sin of all of us to give you and me, life. As we turn and see the blood on that cross, the black stains put there by us, the dried blood that Jesus died upon, we see sin, death and evil piecing the heart of Jesus, and our hearts as well. 

But look! Jesus put to death sin, our sin, Jesus didn't sin; so on that cross is my murder, my adultery, my lies, my evil... and yours. He did this so that we could live while he dies. In his death, that was it! That was it for sin. Jesus did it once and that was all that was needed. It's done! Sin is defeated! 

Huh! I still sin! I still do the stuff that I hate! Sure, but Jesus has taken care of my sin for me now and forever. I'm not in prison to my sin. I turn from my sin each and every day to face my Savior and follow him in his will and in his way. As I turn each day, Jesus grows in me and for me. I can choose life because Jesus took care of sin and rose again to new life. In my here and now, I can look heavenward to a joy that never ends with God. As I peer up at the cross, I see beyond that cross to a resurrection. I see the white and perfection of God. I see the heart of God beating within Jesus and me, alive... not dead... I see the blue sky of hope and joy of eternity with God. Even though my sin convicts me... there Jesus is on that cross dead, yet walking forth from the tomb to lead me to him. 

Jesus will come again and raise me to a new life, free from all sin, death and evil. Jesus will come again to raise me and all those that he has made righteous, to live fully as God intended.

So, I follow. I turn to Jesus from my sin, and I follow. Yes, I'm a sinner, but Jesus has already taken care of all of that for me. Do, I continue to sin? Yes... I hate it, as I should, but I can now live assured that sin is defeated. Not by me in my own rationalization, but by Jesus suffering and death and resurrection.

Thanks be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit... today... tomorrow... and forever! --- Amen

Salt and Light

 This weeks reflection on the Gospel for February 5th.

Matthew 5:13-20

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A13-20&version=ESV

This week I spent a little time each day reflecting on the above passage of scripture in preparation for the hearing of the Word this Sunday.

Once again, Jesus is teaching his disciples, including me and many others in this world. It struck me that Jesus wants me to be me. Sure, I look to Jesus, but I can't make the mistake that I need to be just like Jesus. God created me to be me, not Jesus. I need to realize and understand that I can't be Jesus anyway. That's ridiculous! My study this week showed me how God desires actions for him and my neighbors, but not piety and self righteous acts. Sure, seek to imitate Jesus but, not be Jesus. I'm me and God created me to be unique. Jesus is God, I can't, nor ever will be, God. That's not my place, nor ever will be, my place. Faith rests on the power of God... not me!

So, how am I to act as a disciple of Jesus? I can look to the Law of God, especially as the Law is revealed in the Old Testament. Jesus tells us that the Law remains the Law, He didn't come into this world to change the Law, but rather fulfills the Law. What does that mean?

As I look at the Law, I realize what a simple man I am. I realize that I can't keep all of the Law, I realize that my punishment is death and eternal damnation. I realize that I can't live up to this Law from God. But... as God and as Man... Jesus came into this world to live up to the Law in my place. 

God knows me. God knows my unique qualities and celebrates me being me. God loves me and each one that he has created so much that God took on the task of making each of us righteous in his sight, not by my good works or your good works, but rather by the good works of God himself in Jesus, in order that all of us may live in eternity with God. Jesus fulfills the Law.

So what? So, knowing that it's not about me, God permits me to be me and permits me to be a disciple of Jesus in the unique way that God calls me to action. I don't need to be Jesus. I can't be anyway. But knowing that Jesus fulfills the Law, I'm free from the impossibility of myself fulfilling the Law. I'm free to act out as God would have me act out. I'm free to be what God created me to be... Me!

This being salt and light thing releases me! Salt and Light must be useful and God makes me useful. I don't need to worry about being useful in and of my own action. God releases me to perform good acts from a pure heart for neighbor. Jesus frees me to be me, not because of my works. So, in this respect, when Jesus knocks on my door, he releases me to come out and play in this world in which he places me without worry. I am free to play with Jesus as his disciple in this world, knowing that Jesus has already done all that needs to be done to save his people.... you and me.

As I go into this world with Jesus, I can live today as if I was already living in the Kingdom of God to come. Jesus play, changes things. Acts are no longer about a good act, it's about the motive behind the act. My motive no longer has to be to fulfill the Law myself. My motive changes to be the one that follows Jesus. My motive turns to be the one that let's the Light of Jesus shine through me into the world.  

You see, now, with Jesus fulfillment of the Law, it's not about me, the Lamp, any longer. Rather, now, it's about the Light that shines in and through me. It's about Jesus, not me! How great is that!

Day to day I am free to play and witness. I don't need to be great. Jesus is great. What a burden lifted! So, prayer and discipline in the Word is a joy and a passion. When Jesus shines his Light through me, for me, it's an act of worship. All Light comes from God.

This whole deal of Jesus fulfilling the Law makes discipleship a true joy. It makes the evils of this world and the pain and the sorrow that I surely will still experience pale in comparison to what God has in store for me in his eternal Kingdom. It releases me and it releases you as well.

So, hear the Word in this passage. Feel the freedom to be a disciple of Jesus in this world in which we live, here and now, knowing that Jesus has overcome the evil and the death and the sin in order to bring you to everlasting life with him in eternity.

How great is that! Just be yourself... be salt... be the Lamp that let's God shine through to all the world. Thanks be to God... today... tomorrow... and forever.

Chosen-Anointed-Called

 

Please take a few minutes with me as I reflect on this week's research and reflection on: Matthew 5:1-12 (see link below for passage)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A1-12&version=ESV

This week seemed to bring forth a more direct approach to the scripture for me. Kind of like a Disciples Code of Conduct. A few thoughts before I dig into what I read and reflected upon are appropriate.

God is a saving God. So much so that I stand in fear of him. I know for certain that I am not deserving of salvation. Sins that I have done and things that I have left undone convict me to die in my sin. 

However, I read in the New Testament, and see examples in the Old Testament, how God chooses people to act out his will in this world of sin and sinful people. God, over and over again demonstrates how he is the source of life. That source of life is brought into creation and fulfilled in creation through the actions of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 5:1-12 is referred to as the Beatitudes, or also The Sermon on the Mount. These are the words of Jesus teaching his disciples. Some liken these comments with a "New" law from the mount. Jesus seems to be giving, what may seem to be, "New Commandments." It seems to me that these short statements are more like examples of how Jesus lives his life and how we follow our teacher.

God does not give up on us. With this love shown, his disciples respond to God's call to do his will in his way. 

I will always fail in my attempt to act out all of these new commands. But Jesus does that for me. My response is a constant, daily, turning to Jesus to be forgiven and freed to live my life as his disciple day after day, knowing that only through Jesus perfect life will I be brought into the Kingdom of God to live with him forever. 

So, daily, I turn my interests and desires to join God in working for justice. I expect my discipleship to be hard. In thinking of the Kingdom of God, I know that the way is tough to establish what will happen as heaven is established on earth. 

The rule of heaven will right what is wrong and bring justice. Being a disciple of Jesus will not be easy. A disciple has much serious work to do. Work not to earn "brownie" points or even work to achieve credit with Jesus, but work as a response to what God calls each disciple to do as God turns us to focus on the Now and the Future with him in eternity. It is Jesus that faithfully fulfills all of the Beatitudes.

As we pray in the Lord's Prayer, They will be done, I know that God's will will be done, but I ask that God's will be done in and through me (Luthers' Explanation). As a disciple I turn my interests to the desires of God in his Kingdom.

So now I take a moment to reflect on what I have heard this week as I ponder the jets of Light sparkling and streaming from Jesus as he sat to teach his disciples on the mount.

+Poor in Spirit+

Remember I depend on God for all life! I am poor and need to be real about myself. So, fear and trust in God.

+Mourn+

Accept sorrow. The darkness will reveal the Light of Jesus. Share my pain and share in the pain of another. And mourn for my sins and the sins of others. We all need to turn and face God.

+Meek+

Be overcome by the greatness of God. God is God, I'm not, nor ever can be. I am meek in God's presence, I am humble and reverent before God my Creator, Saviour and Redeemer. I am overjoyed to walk in the shadow of Jesus.

+Hunger and Thirst+

Thirst for righteousness. Righteousness only through what Jesus has done for all people. I thirst for righteousness in myself and the world. I hunger for Christ, day after day.

+Merciful+

This is not a sentiment. Mercy is a call to action. Mercy is a deed to be done. Get to it with all those God gives to me each day. Be merciful.

+Pure in Heart+

I seek to see God with my whole body and soul. I look for God all around me. God is always closer than you think, so look for God. Look, see. listen and respond in love.

+Peacemaker+

Seek reconciliation with God and neighbor. Be one again with God and those we live with. Turn my mind to see God's love for all people.

+Persecution+

Expect to be persecuted. Jesus had a cross and I have a cross. Expect persecution. The outcome of Christ's way of life is to be home with God. I need to expect to die with Jesus. And wonderfully as well I expect to rise again with Christ to be with God in eternity.

At the end of each of these statements Jesus declared blessings. As a called disciple of Jesus, walking in the will of God in my life, Jesus blesses. Blesses his disciples in these statements that appear to be opposites of worldly standards.

Thanks for this discipleship "Code of Conduct," so to speak. Ways to actively live life with God and with neighbor.

Thanks be to God for being chosen by God in my Baptism, anointed with the Holy Spirit and called to action in the ways of Jesus, my Saviour, my King, my God, today... tomorrow... and forever. Amen

Released...

Rest a while and ponder with me if you care to.

Matthew 4:12-25

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%204%3A12-25&version=ESV

I can't help but to think of John the Baptist, first and foremost, in this passage. Arrested, in prison. John had witnessed the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus as John baptized Jesus. John had seen a new beginning. John's calling complete, in a way. Yet he sees the Light. In the darkness and depression of prison, John sees the Light of God. God in Jesus through the Holy Spirit beginning something new. Jesus beginning a ministry that would change everything. God present in flesh to save mankind.

How John must have seen in the darkness a Light that would bring great joy, not only to himself but to all who believe that God will rescue his people from sin, death and the evil forces of this world that imprison each of us. 

I'm sure, you like me have been imprisoned by something in life. Perhaps addiction, gluttony, sexual desires, gossip, theft, murder, jealousy, on and on I could go; but I'm sure all are guilty of some sin that has put us in that dark place of sin, death and evil. It's nothing new in this place that we live.

When we dwell in the dark times and that Light shines through the bars of our sin, the Kingdom is near. God's Kingdom has come, is here and will be fulfilled, in the end of it all. We can rest assured. God's Kingdom is with us in our dark times.

Oh, how I need the dark times. I need the dark times to come to the end of myself. I realize that God reigns in his Kingdom with me when I submit to God's will and give up on myself being my own god. I cannot save myself. So here I sit in the darkest times of life. In these dark times I begin to hear again and again my confirmation verse coming through in life... Psalm 27:1 - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

In the midst of John the Baptist's prison darkness, Jesus begins his ministry. Jesus begins his ministry with the same cry that the Baptist cried from the wilderness. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

Jesus cry strikes me a bit differently. Repent! Jesus is here! The Holy Spirit has descended upon the flesh of man in Jesus and is about to begin something wonderfully awesome for all the people of this earth, you and me included. The Spirit is shining through Jesus for you and for me. A great Light is here! Repent, Jesus says. Turn to new life. See the Light in the midst of your prison cell. There is new life in Jesus love and grace. See the Light... Hear his Voice... Sense the Spirit of God making a new creation in you and me.

Out of my dark prison, Jesus issues a call. Wait a minute! Jesus issues a command! Jesus issues a command to follow him. This is not a choice! This is a command. A command that causes disciples to immediately follow. Come out of that dark prison to the Light of Christ and follow! Now!

But how? Through the power of the Gospel of God. Power that can bend the bars of prison cells, or break them apart to release each of us toward the great Light of what God does for all people. Jesus sets us free to be his disciples.

Jesus call is a word contact flesh to flesh. Jesus calls the average people. Jesus calls individuals, not copies of a bunch of goody two shoes, but real individual people of different characteristics and various walks of life. Jesus calls the enthusiastic, who are alive and excited to follow him. Jesus calls the reverent who pray in full compassion for God's people in all the situations of life that need Jesus healing touch to free them from their own prison cells of life.

When we see "stuff" like common occupations, fishermen, maintenance workers, servers, garbage collectors, accountants, doctors, healthcare workers, production workers, managers, pastors, priests... Jesus sees brothers and sisters, Jesus sees disciples. Even when we look at a well of water, Jesus sees living water. When we see the harvest of crops, Jesus see a human harvest of souls to save for all eternity. When we see "stuff" Jesus sees love, compassion and grace, for his sisters and brothers in the flesh.

As Jesus calls you and me to be his disciple; we are not called to be scholars of scripture. Rather we are called to be heralds of God's Kingdom of grace that has saved us from our own very unique prison of sin and death and the evil of this world, so that we may scream with great enthusiasm what God has done for us through the healing from the Light of God into our prison. 

Or perhaps we are heralds of steady prayer and understanding to those still in the prisons of sin, death and the devil, to listen, pray, comfort, feed. clothe, and follow the example that Jesus has called us to act out, shining Jesus Light into this dark world. 

All along knowing that Jesus came in flesh as God with the Holy Spirit to live, heal, suffer, die and rise again, as he defeats the death that our prisons would surely cause without his action in our lives.

So, sing it out. God has shown you the Light of Jesus and called you to be a disciple of Jesus in the Kingdom of God. 

You have been released from your own prison. You are called. You are commanded to follow. You are saved by God. You are God's most loved and adored person. Believe it! Act like it!

Daily... Repent... For the Kingdom of God has come near to draw you from your darkness... to God's Light... to eternal Joy with your creator.

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"

Thanks be to God... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Who is this?

Relax for a few minutes please... reflect with me...

Reflection --- John 1:29-42

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A29-42&version=ESV

Who is this man, John? Who is this man that you baptized? Who is this that the Holy Spirit descended upon in your baptism?

First off, the focus of baptism is not the action of man. In baptism we are not witnessing a great action of a man. Baptism changed with Jesus. John called the people to confess their sinfulness and be cleansed of their sin by baptism. But with the baptism of Jesus, baptism changed. It was no longer about me taking care of my sin. I will always fail if I think that I can cleanse myself of my sin. I may think that I can be a good boy from now on and God will then like me again and take care of me and take me to heaven. But, it doesn't work like that. It never did work like that.

Even as Adam and Eve tried to get closer to God by believing the tricks of Satan, God was watching out for them and you and me. So, God kicked them out of the garden. He had to. God had to kick them out, and you and me out as well. We would have made the error of thinking that more of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make us closer to God and we would be like God by our own action. If this would take place, we would be forever in our own sin. So, God kicks us out! Kicks us out to save us from ourselves. God loves his creation and us.

God kicks us out and then... and then... along in time comes Jesus at his baptism. At Jesus baptism God sends his Spirit upon Jesus. Jesus baptism is God active.

John the Baptist saw the heavens open, he heard the voice of God and he saw the Spirit descend on Jesus. This was God's action. And time for John to step away. Jesus steps in. God steps in.

So, the next day, John sees Jesus and now can proclaim, "Here is Jesus the Messiah, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

Jesus has come to forgive all of us and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness that we inherited from that sinful action of Man attempting to be close to God through his own efforts in the Garden of Eden. And for our own actions of trying to be the god of our own life as well.

When I was born, I was born with an infection. An infection passed on to me since the Garden of Eden. I was born infected with sin. So now, as John says, "Look the Lamb of God."

God gave me a Sacrificial Lamb and a Passover Lamb. One to take on my sin and another lamb to feed me for my journey of life. That Lamb is Jesus. Jesus remembers Mans sinful infection, and comes to remove that infection so that we may be in communion with God. In communion with God like Adam and Eve would have loved, but now, in communion with God because of what God does... not because of what Man does.

In baptism in the Church today, we speak of it being a sacrament. The central figure in a sacrament is not Man, but the central figure is God. It is God's action that makes baptism a sacrament. Baptism does not depend on my action or the action of someone else. It is God's action that counts. In baptism, God accepts us. Baptism is not about me or you accepting God.

So now what? How do we find Jesus?

Look back at the passage above. One way is to listen to the voice of John the Baptist. He directs the first two disciples to Jesus and declares Jesus the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And then there are those people that Jesus hunts down ruthlessly until they come to recognize him as the Messiah, the Savior, their Savior!

Listen to Jesus... he tells us to come and see. Come and see the Messiah and what he does for you and for me. So, having Jesus... once again... Now what?

Just as at Jesus baptism, things have changed. God puts a new Spirit within us. Baptism is not about us becoming new again due to what we have done. God does it all. God brings us back to him. He removes the fever of our sinful being and draws us back to him out of sin and death.

I know that Jesus takes away my sin... but how many sins has Jesus taken away from me? Jesus loved me and gave himself for me! How hard that must be! And... how grateful I am for God sending his Son into the world that I may be in communion with him, in communion, not of my own doing, but of God's action in my life.

So, like John the Baptist, I respond. I respond humbly in the presence of Jesus and proclaim. Come and see! Come and see what's happened in my life. Come and see Jesus. Stay with me, remain with me and see and hear Jesus gift of salvation for all people.

I can't be content with my own salvation, while those around me perish in the storm of life. That would be so selfish of me! I have been called by God, given the Spirit of God to proclaim Christ. To reveal to all the people God gives to me the Gospel of Jesus action of saving all people by putting our sin to death upon the cross, by dying in our sin, and by raising again, defeating sin forever.

It really is all about God's action. No action on my part would do.

Friends, trust God, be happy and tell the Good News that God has been revealed in Christ, that we may live in the communion and love of God, like God would have had it all along. Believe it and live in communion... today... tomorrow... and forever.

Thanks be to God!

Baptism

 

Reflection...

Matthew 3:13-17

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%203%3A13-17&version=ESV

Let's deal with baptism a little bit here. I certainly fall short in my explanation, but God certainly opens eyes and ears to visions and voices.

A few things jumped out to me in this passage. But first a little background is helpful to understand. This is a passage about Jesus ministry... the beginning of his ministry. Jewish priests were consecrated. Kind of like an ordination into ministry. But what trips us up is that John the Baptist was calling for a baptism of repentance. Repent from you sin and turn around. It's accepted by Christians that Jesus was sinless. So what gives? I'll get to that in a bit.

So the consecration of a priest was threefold. The priest was washed, anointed and sealed. That's what happened here also with Jesus. He was washed in the waters of the Jordan, anointed with the heavens opening to him, and sealed with God the Father's voice announcing Jesus as his Son.

It strikes me that Jesus rises out of what I will call the chaotic waters of sin. John the Baptist call was to repentance. I certainly need repentance. Jesus steps into the very messed up water of my sin to be baptized in a new way. These chaotic waters take my memory back to Genesis, where God hovered over the chaotic water and created life that was open to God's heavenly realm of paradise all with God's voice and Word.

And then... mans sinful self attempted to have the knowledge of God. Perhaps to be his own god. Sin enters...

And then... and then there is the Dove. I think back on the dove that Noah released after the flood. A flood brought on by man's sin in this world. But here, in Jesus baptism is the dove in a different respect. A dove appears to demonstrate the deliverance from sin by God for all creation. 

Now Jesus was sinless. So what gives? Well, at this point in Jesus life, he was leaving home to take up the cross or maybe better stated his calling. God was turning this repentance baptism of John the Baptist into an ordination of Jesus for ministry. Today for me and for you, as we are baptized this same thing occurs.

Jesus left home to take up the cross and to take upon himself, in this baptism, the common sin of all men. In Jesus baptism, he shared my shame and pain in my sin in order to redeem and save me.

Now this baptism has become both corporate and personal. In the baptismal waters, this earthly water and element of God's creation, we are drowned in our sin to be pulled up out of the chaotic waters of sinful man to a new life with promise and hope and a calling to be God's very own child. We are declared by a voice from God to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are a new child free from sin and death yet sill in the presence of sin and death. My sin and your sin still happen but are no longer the point of it all. 

We are free to act boldly and to follow Jesus to begin what God has called us to do in his kingdom with the passion only God can give to us, to be ministers, priests, servants, and disciples; to voice and flesh out the Gospel message to all the people God gives to us each day. All so that each person can see what God has done in taking on sin, death and the devil to defeat once and for all in the resurrection of Jesus. And we need to do nothing for it all. Jesus has done it all.

Believe it. Accept it and run in joy from your baptism to a new beginning and a new life and a fulfilling ministry to life in God. In the baptism God freely gives, we are free to run and play and roll in the grass with the angels. 

So rejoice in this passage of the Bible. Jesus died to sin once and for all and Jesus likewise rose for all of us to grant eternal life with God.

It's a good day to celebrate and be baptized!

Thanks be to God! Today... tomorrow... and forever!

The Journey

 

Reflection...

Matthew 2:1-12 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A1-12&version=ESV

I think of a journey. A journey by some important and wise and very knowledgeable people. I, though not very knowledgeable, but willing and anxious to follow, go along on a journey of my own.

I follow Gentiles that are going to pay homage to a king. A new king in Jesus. Gentiles sent by a ruthless, murdering ruler of the area named Herod. Perhaps and maybe likely, there are murderers with us as we journey. Murderers with the job to kill the new king, so I have to watch out for myself.

Where are we heading? Well we really don't know. All I can do is follow along, trusting the knowledge of these so called Wisemen. The Wisemen knew the story of Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. So they had some information to go by in this journey. They were told by Jewish Chief Priests and Scribes about a star and about Bethlehem. So off we go, towards Bethlehem following a star. We follow the Light.

These Wisemen are no dummies either. They know the plot of Herod, to kill this new king. Perhaps some of the gifts that they carry are more than gifts to honor the new king in worship. Perhaps these gifts are to finance an escape trip for the family of this new king into Egypt. Not only could we worship the new king, but we could also save the king.

As we continue our journey a change takes place. A change takes place in me and in the Wisemen and in all the world. This is not a journey towards safety for me and a place in the kingdom of the new king. It turns. It turns around into something else. 

As I follow the Light of the Star on my journey, I begin to sense that Jesus is bringing me from a far away place. Jesus walks with me and takes me into a place with him. A place of worship and honor and glory. 

But, for now, let's go back to the party of travelers that I'm with. Our purpose has a few issues that we need to address. You see, Herod has an issue with this new king. The Jewish leaders of the day gather against the new king. Plan's are made in secret. And the death of this new king is sought. A new king, upsets the rule and order of not only the government but also the religious order of the day. This new king must be stopped right away.

Time tells of a huge contrast in motives between these kings of the day. Herod is magnificent, energetic, powerful and a crafty murderer. This new king, Jesus, born in a manger as a helpless baby, would rule in compassion and truth. Two kings that were totally different. One king of this world and all the evil it brings and the other king sent into this evil world to bring salvation and life to all flesh. This, Jesus king, arrives and seems so weak, yet well... he is divine.

A bright light announces the coming of king Jesus. The Light of God's glory has dawned upon his creation. Jesus is a Light and King sent to deliver all flesh and to save God's people from sin, death and the devil. Sent to bring everlasting life to all who believe. So, we have a king sent to grant access to God through faith in Jesus.

We journey towards Bethlehem, known as the "House of Bread." A village in the grainfields with a much deeper meaning that just bread to sustain life. We, journey as a group of Gentiles towards a new life.

As our party arrives, it dawns on me in this present age in which I live, that I gather to worship and rejoice with all the Christmas hymns, the joy, the celebration, the gifts and all to realize that as I look upon this baby Jesus, I also see Jesus mocked at the cross. The secret plots and plans to kill King Jesus are carried out in fullness.  I see Jesus in the darkness at his death. I see my Christmas rejoicing turn to Good Friday mourning of the death of the king, I too crucified in my sin.

In my journey to Bethlehem, as the Light leads me onward in life, I walk in the Light to a place beyond the star. I walk in the Light to a place beyond myself. As I look to the star from my place on this planet, I look up and out into the cold of space at this bright star. Stars from beneath seem cold. Yet stars from above, from the love of God looking down on me provide a life giving sacrifice in my place. From above is the warmth of the love of God. From beneath is the coldness of my sinfulness.

As I realize my journey proceeds on to a journey beyond myself. A journey towards a God and Saviour that will meet my biggest need. My biggest need isn't health or wealth or food or anything this world can give. My biggest need in this journey in the presence of the Light, is salvation.

So, I journey in the Light... today... tomorrow... and forever. A journey open to all who believe. I journey in thanksgiving for all this  King gives. As I journey I strive to bring my best to the One Life, the One Truth, the One Salvation.

Walk your own journey in the Light, to the Light and the warmth and love of God's true gift of a new King and new Life in and through him.

Thanks be to God!

The Innocent

 

The reading reflection for this week is Matthew 2:13-23 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A13-23&version=ESV

This is so sad a passage of scripture. It makes me pause and think. Death was the threat and death was carried out in such fierce crude fashion that the evil of this world seems to be predominate in this passage. 

But on second look, I hear the words of angelic voices from God sending Joseph, Mary and Jesus into Egypt, protecting Jesus for a later act of love that would overthrow and deny all power of the evil forces of, not only this world, but the spiritual world as well. There is a resurrection story in this passage as well as the demonic, evil story of Herod killing innocent children.

Egypt seems to bring forth a mystery in time. When I look to the powers of the pharaohs and the building of magnificent pyramids, there seems to be an intriguing wonder, a mystery. The very stories of the plagues and the acts of God along with the acts of the magicians of Egypt in duplicating the early plagues brings to mind mysteries.

There are even some early stories that Jesus went to Egypt to learn the trade of a magician.  A magician that could re-enact the miracles out of Egypt. I'm not sure of the age of Jesus at this time in Egypt, but this information seems to be a stretch for me to buy into. 

Anyway, from this passage, I hear angelic direction. When to go... where to go... when to return... where to return. All leading to a spiritual component in the life of Jesus and his family. And making me recall a sort of reverse story of a journey into and out of Egypt by Joseph and Moses.

I see a merciful God in that Jesus and family are saved from the present evil of Herod killing the babies in the suspected region of Jesus birth. Perhaps 20 to 25 children were killed just because a ruler had a fear that his power and prestige would be surpassed by an up and coming king. How egotistical and selfish!

But then I'm troubled that the Messiah and the spiritual powers of God would protect Jesus at the expense of the lives of babies in Israel. I can't imagine the cry of the mothers who lost their babies in Ramah. What is that about?

Isn't there a better way?

I can try to find some comfort in the idea that God sent Jesus on a mission that surpassed the lives of babies to bring salvation to all people. That God would fill the hearts with his Spirit and bring forth a resurrection story for Jew, and Gentile. That Jesus was sent to redeem those under the law to be adopted into God's family. But it all seems, for me, to be a rationalization of a horrible event that God permitted to take place in time and history, for a purpose that is beyond my human understanding.

So, I cry out to God... Why? Why is this world full of evil that you permit to happen? Why is there this struggle here in my time and place of war, hunger, poverty and death that you, God, permit to take place. Why? Why don't you take all of this away, and take it all away now?

And then I stop. I stop and think on my sin. I think on the Law and realize that I don't deserve salvation. What you created was perfect. What you created was paradise. You, God, didn't ruin it all. I did!

How many people have I killed in my heart? How many have I judged useless and good for the trash heap? How many people have I left hungry as I gorged myself in food and lavish living? How have I ignored the plight of my neighbor and refused to act to help? Should I go on?  I deserve to die a more cruel death than those innocent babies. I deserve death for the actions and the inactions of my life. You, God, didn't make me to be this way. I did all this on my own!

Yet, God, through the spiritual message of angels, saved the One who could make it all right. God saved Jesus not to teach him some cheap magician tricks in Egypt. God saved Jesus from death at that moment in history, in order that Jesus may complete God's saving act of saving me all the people of his perfect creation from sin, the devil, evil and death by taking our place. Jesus would take on the punishment that I deserve for my own sin, my sin, not Jesus' sin, but my sin! Jesus would take on my sin and die for me, and he died for you as well, that the death of those innocent babies would not be the final act of evil in their lives. Jesus death would be the final act of the death of the traps set by sin. And to show us what is to come for me and for you. Jesus arose from death to life everlasting, for you, for me, and for those babies, for whom we cry out for in Ramah.

Lord, I look to you. During this Christmas Season you have taken on flesh. You have blood pulsing through your veins of everlasting life that was dead, and now is alive. May your blood feed us and sustain us with everlasting life as we live to proclaim your power and glory to a world in sin, that your people may come to believe that you graciously give life eternal. Life beyond any act of evil rulers or the evil powers of the devil in this world and the spiritual realm so hard to fathom. Thank you for coming into our lives and saving us... today... tomorrow... and forever! Amen!!!

The Birth the Light the Beginning

Reflection on John 1:1-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A1-18&version=ESV 

(Read it!)

Entertain me for a moment.

 In life I have had times of deep darkness. The darkness of sin, the darkness of covetousness, the darkness of indulgence, the darkness of death and pain. I’ve been in the presence of darkness and separation from God. You see, I like so many love the darkness. I’ve spent time  myself at the gross, darkness of the cross of Jesus, knowing, in my heart, that I put Jesus on that cross with my sinfulness.  I’m sinful and evil.  I’ve seen the darkness of death and hell in my life. Deep, deep darkness that I have brought upon myself. 

Yet in the midst of the darkest times, I came to realize the presence of God. I didn’t seek God, but rather God sought me. God hunted me down. God came out of time before me into my time. God broke into the midst of my darkness and hell to speak beyond my time, of a time in eternity. A time past, now, and forever into the future. God speaks in time and breaks through time and darkness to reveal the love and life he gives to all creation.

Jesus brought life into the world. Jesus brought life before the world and time, and during and after into eternity. Jesus is the source of all life and light. Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory. Light, Life, and Darkness are all spiritual realities. All exist. The Life of God enters history with the gift of eternal life into the present.

As God comes to me in the midst of my deep darkness, he freely pours his Light into me. God seeks to fill every crevice and space in my life with his Light. The Light is so intense, it sets off a fire in me that can’t be quenched. A fire that Christ daily feeds with the anointing oil of forgiveness and grace. God sweeps me up and overwhelms all senses of body and spirit.  Even the darkness of the cross cannot overcome the Light which radiantly shines forth upon the resurrection of Jesus and his gift of new life and new Light.

God is spirit, so God came to us to show himself. God shows himself to us as Word and Light. The Torah… the Living Word of God has come in Jesus.  And Jesus is born into time and space, God comes to me and to you.

Jesus’ light makes clear our human experience and destiny. Jesus born as God’s expression of himself to all people. God comes to tabernacle with his people and live with us as one of us.

And Jesus goes into time and space to reveal God’s eternal love on the cross. A Love full of grace and truth. Jesus brings God and man into a new relation.

Out of my darkness I take refuge in Jesus and live in the joy of his Light and the beautiful message he gives to me and to all who believe in him. God takes my senses from ear to eye. I can now hear and see through the darkness the Light of Christ. But seeing is different from believing. The abundance of God’s divine gift of Jesus, the Light, the Word, is never exhausted but is continually being renewed. Jesus made my fight against sin, death, the devil and eternal darkness, his fight. In Jesus battle, he frees me.

Daily God passes on some of his own nature and Light that I now come out of the darkness as something new and different and strange. I can’t change myself into what God wants me to be, but God changes me into what pleases God. 

And suddenly there is someone beside me. That someone is Jesus, God in flesh and Word and Light, bringing me through life to life.

This message of darkness, light, word and life is for all the world. It’s not just mine. But it’s a message born into space and time in Jesus this Christmas for all people to see, hear, feel and to believe.

My wish for this Christmas Season is that all who believe in God’s saving grace and love through Jesus may let some of his Light shine in and through. For the Light is the central glory to behold in Jesus coming.

Thanks be to God that Jesus has come and will come again. Merry Christmas, my friends! May God dwell with you and in you… today… tomorrow… and forever. --- Amen

Respond

 

Matthew 1:18-25 https://www.bible.com/bible/59/MAT.1.18-25.ESV --- read it! 

Joseph was a fine man, but as I read this passage of scripture, I realize it’s not really about Joseph. The passage seems to be a little bit about Mary, but not all that much either. The center of this passage, for me, is the action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is active on Mary and on Joseph and on me as well today.

There are a few other readings for this 4th Sunday in Advent that point my thinking in this direction. 

Isaiah 7:10-17 helps me to see the Messiah or in the Gospel passage, the One to be named Jesus; as a sign from God. A sign for me to see and to recognize and to ponder and gaze to.

Psalm 24 caused me to cry with the psalmist, “May the King of glory come!” May the Messiah come to me this day, tomorrow and every day, to hear my confession, forgive me and send me out into this world to work his will in his way.

Also Romans 1:1-7 permits me to see Jesus declared to be the Son of God through whom we receive grace and love.

If you have time, read the above passages and jot down a note or two of what you hear God speak to you.

So, anyway… back to Matthew 1:18-25… my notes and reactions

• God is with us

• He will save his people

• Jesus is the Eternal Word

• Mary/Joseph are obedient to God

• God is now present in a new way

• God’s presence is with men now --- not in the Temple

• Joseph is “just” – he observes the Jewish Law

• Joseph could expose Mary or divorce Mary to save his own image with the people he lives around 

• Mary and Joseph were quick to heed the call of the moment

My take? What do I hear God saying to me?

There are times in my life that God has chosen to radically change me and the world that I live in today. There are times that God speaks through the mouth of other people and the actions of people that God places in my life. I have dreams and thoughts that perhaps angels have placed in my mind and my soul. 

Here, in the Gospel message, there is witness to the action of Mary and Joseph. Actions that the Holy Spirit has infused their lives with and the Spirit has invaded their souls with. I, like Mary and Joseph need to listen carefully, prayerfully respond to in times in haste, to be quick to notice the call of the moment and respond to God and to change my actions, my ways and my path. Respond to the unknown, knowing that God has granted me grace to live out new and changed ways of living in the sure, hope and trust that God’s plan is way beyond me and my own world.

God draws each of us out of ourselves and invites us in to live, even in our sinfulness, in the grace and freedom of the forgiveness of sin, so that God can accomplish something new and revealing about God. New to me, to you and to the world in which we live, but sure in the revelation of the fulfillment that God has planned for his people.

So, yes, respond to that call when you hear it, like Mary and Joseph, knowing that God’s action in you, and in this world is what the call is really about. Say yes, and do what you least expected you would do, in the trust and hope and knowledge that God’s will and call in your life will bring glory to God.

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus, come… to me… to this world… to all called through you… today… tomorrow… and forever. --- Amen

Change

 

There's a big change coming! A huge change! Read Matthew 11:2-15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2011%3A2-15&version=ESV --- Read it!

I doubt all the time. Apparently John the Baptist and his followers had doubt also. This pointing to Jesus is a big Big BIg BIG change!

This was not just a change coming upon us from God, but a huge change in the ages from the beginnings of eternity. Here in this passage we have a change coming from the time of the Law and the Prophets, from which John the Baptist came, to an age of the of the Messiah, the day of the Lord Jesus, and the age of the End  times. 

So, when the people of John the Baptist's time went out to see John in the wilderness... what did they expect? What did they see in this John the Baptist? I mean John dressed in hairy clothing and eating a strange diet, living off of what God alone gives, wasn't exactly like the Evangelist in a suit on a stage screaming and dancing and singing. John the Baptist wasn't in a suit and tie or robes. John was living off of the land and wearing what he could find from the land. John wasn't a soft handed character, he was rugged and determined to fulfill the call God gave to him in passion and certainty. John certainly didn't waver or flip-flop around in what he had to say about the Messiah.

But now...  in this passage... John's voice does not cry from the desert. John's voice cry's from the dungeon, perhaps of prison. John's cry from the wilderness was about to be silenced in the dungeon. So, he doubted his very own word and needed to listen to THE WORD. 

This goes for me too. In the midst of my sinful doubt, I need to stop... to listen... to hear deeper meanings.

Jesus wasn't doing what John proclaimed he would do; at least not in John's mind, I think. Is Jesus the Messiah? John proclaimed the coming of God the Judge... God coming with the fire of Judgment on this sinful world and these sinful people that need to turn and to repent and face God. John was the one that identified the Messiah out in that wilderness. Was Jesus really the right guy? So, he doubted.

John could see the flames of the judgment of God, but not so much the quiet beginning of the good will of God. John could see God the Judge, but not so much God the Father. The ministry that Jesus tells John's disciples to report back on is a ministry of the Messiah of mercy, love and compassion.

Herein lies the BIG change. The BIG change of Law and Prophets, of which John comes from to a NEW age of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus makes the BIG BIG difference between the two ages as well as for you and me and all of God's children, between our personal changes of life and death.

The greatest of the past age, now fall in line with the least of this age. You see, the "Least" are not now greater because of what they have done or earned or obeyed... rather, now the "Least" are the greatest by the grace of God in Christ Jesus in this new age.

We live in an age that is a BIG change. Are we making God in an image that we want to see? Or will we live in the BIG change of a God that lives on his terms, not our terms. A new age with Jesus saving grace that would bring mercy, love, healing, and a salvation that reaches beyond all ages of the world.

God comes to save you and me and all his people. Keep me patient Lord Jesus. For as you declared to John the Baptist, in his doubt, as you declare to me in the midst of all of my doubts... you have come and will come again. You promise to come yet again... to judge. But, today in this age of my life may I turn to you and believe. I simply believe, trust and hope in you alone.

And then... and then... so majestically and wonderfully we will all gather around the throne of God and praise you into eternity. Praise the Lord!

Lord, in the midst of my doubt, forgive me, forgive all your people who look away, that we may all see Your age, and the BIG change of your acts of love mercy and salvation. Make us Listen! Listen for the deeper meanings and see it all the more clearly. Today... tomorrow... and forever. Come Lord Jesus, come! --- Amen

Repent! Change! Turn! Why not?

 I've seen this image many times before. I've seen not just an image, but the real thing while I worked at Armco Steel in years past. The reading from Matthew 3:1-12 (read it!) reminded me of my past. 

In the reading, John the Baptist is in the wilderness, baptizing, of course... duh! 

Even through the food that John lived on, he relied on food provided by God the Creator. It was food that God gave directly. Food that didn't need human intervention. Honey... from the bees... some say it was sweetness from pods naturally grown, and locust, well they don't need any human intervention either. John depended on life totally from God.

 John's life was God given towards a God ordained task. All of us are given life and God has a task for each and every one of us. 

John's task was to turn folks around. John declared in the midst of the wilderness, "Repent!" But why?

Well... if I just look at myself. I have so many reasons to repent. I can reflect on my daily life and see reasons to repent. I see things I've said and done that just ain't quite right. In fact, some of those things are downright wrong towards God and towards those people I encounter each day. So... I NEED to repent. I need to change my mind for the better. But how?

It's easy to look to my own sin and explain it away. I can rationalize my bad behavior. Christians do this all the time. They don't look to their own sin, they look to the sins of other people and judge the other person. I do that too much... way too much. So, I need to put away all that phony Church Man, or Church Lady stuff and look at myself. Look at my relationship with God and with those God gives to me and see first hand my sin. See my sin up close and disturbingly uncomfortable. See my failure to live the life God wants me to live. I need to repent!!!

But still, why?

John's God given task was to open the eyes of the people. People then and today. John's baptism of repentance was to wash us and turn us around. You see, John was pointing to Jesus the Messiah. John wants you and me to look to our past... repent... then turn to life in Christ. 

It's the only way. I can't make all of those things of which I repent right again. Only Jesus can. So John tells me that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Whoa!!! Fire? Yep, fire. And thus comes my Armco Steel image.

You see, when I daily repent, when I daily turn to Jesus for new life and a new day, God turns up the heat a little bit. Each day, a little hotter. And finally when the crap from the metal rises to the top. God, through Jesus, scrapes all my junk and sin away. Jesus takes it away... I can't. 

Well guess what? Eventually all that crap on top will boil away and when Jesus looks into that pot of molten metal of myself, Jesus will begin to see himself more clearly in me.

Now that's an Advent of Jesus coming I didn't expect. Jesus coming to me in and through the forgiveness of sin, each and every day of my life. All due to Jesus taking away my sin.

So there you have it. Why does the pot of molten metal remind me of repentance? Because it's all about Jesus Advent, his coming into my world, into my life, into my very being.

Repent! Change! Turn! Why not?

Let Jesus scrape all that crap away and live your life today anew in him and for him and for all those God gives to you each day, in newness of life. God is all you need after all... just ask John.

God gives you life each day and gives you his task as well.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Thanks be to God, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Arrivals

 

How many of us arrived somewhere this weekend? Did you go somewhere? Did someone come to spend time with you? How about those unexpected arrivals? Something happens in our daily living, we may have a hint that it may happen but don't quite believe it will happen right away.

Ukrainians arriving at the borders as their lives are upended by war and suffering... Friends or family having to move home or away from home for one reason or another... Arriving at the hospital with an unexpected heart disease, pneumonia, kidney stone or any multiple of ailments... A deer jumps in front of your car and arrives on your windshield and causes you to arrive somewhere that you least planned.

Arrivals happen... some planned and many not. Some happy and some terrible. This Sunday's Gospel reading is Matthew 24:36-44 (read it!) and it speaks of arrivals. A great and wonderfully life changing arrival.

When the flood came, Noah knew it was coming. He told the people of the day, but doubt set in that there would be a sudden rush of water. So... many people went about life. A few that took heed to the voice of God through Noah lived on, but so many that were hesitant were left to fend for themselves and ultimately died in the flood. They lived their lives in the pre-flood times as if nothing would happen. Perhaps many of them felt that life was under control. Eating, drinking and living life without looking to what God may or may not have in store.

It's fine to live life to the fullest in the here and now. There is nothing at all wrong with this. But the Matthew passage encourages us to be ready. Live with eyes open to the present. But also, look for  more than oncoming trains, swerving cars and signs of disease. Keep your eyes open beyond this physical world and look to the time of advent. 

You see, God has little advents each day. God comes in ways that are unexpected. Listen and be ready. God knows times... I certainly don't know or can even understand his time or timing. So why guess at it or try to predict his time?

This is the Advent Season of the church. Spend some time looking beyond the routine. Be ready for Jesus to come at any time and any place. God is near and will come when... I don't know. 

Enjoy the daily living of these days, but be ready. Live with eyes open and watch! Pray, watch and rejoice in this time and the time to come when we will see, hear, touch and worship our Lord.

Now that's the day I live for! Today... tomorrow... and forever!

Come. Lord Jesus, come...

Christ the King

 This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday and I can't get this image out of my head. I don't think of a King hanging on a cross between two criminals, but there he is.

It's such a contrast between good and evil. And yes, I play my part in all the evil and God plays his part in all the good. There is such a difference between the righteous and the wicked. I see myself hanging with Jesus sometimes to his left and sometimes to his right. 

There he is next to me on his own cross, Jesus, the very image of God on this earth.  I must stop, be still and think and know that God is God and here he is right next to me, suffering, bleeding, gasping for air and dying... right there next to me.

As I hang to Jesus left side, I make fun of him and mock him and join in with the crowd and soldiers in my usual smartass way. I know I deserve death and this guy, this phony, surely deserves death too! Jesus, if you think you're so much, save yourself and us. Save me from suffering, pain, death, cold, heat, labor, illness, thieves, murder, war, pollution...  and sin. Save me from this awful world I live in with all of these awful people around me that do nothing but stand by and watch us all die. Useless people that revel in the punishment and death that we deserve. Exhale a little blood from your lungs and curse these people that kill you and me. Come on Jesus, curse God and die!

As I hang by Jesus on the right side, I know that I'm a sinful man. I know that I deserve death. Yet, as I look at Jesus, I realize that his death is about something much different from my own. From the middle cross I hear words of forgiveness to the crowd and all people in this time and throughout time and into eternity.  You say, "Forgive them..." 

From the right side of Jesus I can see a sign declaring Jesus as King. But I also now know that this King next to me is a King of something far beyond me and this world. It occurs to me that Jesus is King of something beyond death and the grave. 

So, I speak... some kind of faith and hope wells up from within myself as I have visions of this King. I ask Jesus to remember me when he comes into his Kingdom.

And shortly thereafter, it happens! Jesus promises so much more than I could ever imagine. I didn't deserve his promise. I didn't do anything for what Jesus was doing for me. 

What I saw on that middle cross was no longer bloody flesh, but a beautiful Spirit that took me in his arms and escorted me into Paradise, the resting place of the saved before the final judgment and resurrection. Jesus promised me so much more than I ever asked! And my King gave it all to me this very day.!

So what am I to think of all of this?  Some days I'm hanging on the left and ask God to turn me around so that I can see his face and do his will and move me to the cross on his right, where I hear his promise and see his will for me in life. 

A place on the right of Jesus as I die to myself and bleed out in death to live with my King eternally, praising Jesus my King with all his Children in Paradise.

It's definitely Christ the King! My King, my God, my Savior!

… and yours too... come along with me in Jesus arms to Paradise... this very day!

Thanks be to God and Christ my King... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Time

 

Reflections on Luke 21:5-36 (read it!)

Time, what is it? What do we do with time? How do we use time? Is time really worth anything?

Just last week we changed clocks to Standard Time, whatever that is. I hate this time change. I screw my clocks all up... especially the one on the mantle of the fireplace that chimes the hour. It always gets screwed up when I have to go back an hour. The passage above makes me think of time. Not my time.... but God's time.

Somehow, I don't think time is important to God.  God's time is the only time that has any importance. But it seems to me, in the passage above, time is not important. But yet again, in Jesus, time has value. God came into our time and was born, lived, suffered and died and then...

Jesus brought to me and you and this world a sense of urgency and an eternal order of things. We are called to be patient. We live in God's time, not our time. There is an hour of opportunity that is given to each and all of God's Children. An opportunity to look around and testify.

Jesus talks about the Temple in this passage. The Temple of his day was beautiful. People thought that surely, this house of God was the gate to heaven. But, I don't think Jesus thought of this earthly temple in the same way we do. In so many words, Jesus tells us that this earthly temple will dissolve. Jesus points us to another Temple. An everlasting Temple that comes down from God out of heaven.  Perhaps this Temple is like a messiah, to worship, to sing praises to, pray and give glory to.

But look out! Beware... there will be false messiahs. Not coming down from heaven. Messiahs that I tend to be fooled by, that I think may offer salvation to me, here and now, in this place and time.

I need to understand that I have One Messiah. I, as a Child of God, have One allegiance. I need to take heed and watch out for the false messiahs that I see and not be blinded by my present time and situation. Messiahs like political saviors, technological saviors, scientific saviors, monetary saviors, and on and on. These are all temporary. The One Messiah is eternal... God is, I AM, now and forever.

So what about this time I spend in the here and now, upon this earth? Jesus calls his disciples to take a stand. Now is the time.  We live in a world that is painful and full of suffering and death. We live in a world of destruction and decay. A world in need of renewal, forgiveness, peace and strength.

This is a world that calls us out to take a stand. We can't fall to the terrors of this world and fear the evil contained here.  While here in this place we are called to stand in faith, not cower in fear. As disciples we must not just watch the evil herein, but must stand up! We must take all the action we are capable of delivering. We must use all the gifts God has given us and stand up and do something.

This makes me think of something that my Mom once told me... "God gave you a mouth. Use it!"

Likewise when Luther was told to recant his writings, on the grace of God, he took a stand. "God helping me, I can do no other." He stood by what he saw as God's Word in that place and time. But so much more importantly, I think of Jesus.

Even Jesus didn't step free from the suffering of this world. Jesus had a cross. Jesus suffered, died and stood in place of you and me and the sinful world in which we live, giving his very life and becoming our sin. Jesus took a stand to save us all from sin, death and the devil.

In this stand Jesus took, I see visions of God's time, an ending and a new beginning, for all God's Children. I look upward to the heavens and see a cross of death and pain and blood and suffering, outlined against the clear blue sky of joy, hope, love and salvation that spans onward into eternity.

I see the signs of the end, the suffering, destruction, sin, hate, evil and death, are the signs of God's New Beginning.  I see Jesus, resurrection and my resurrection, and your resurrection and the resurrection of all who believe. Jesus is coming!

So what about this time thing? Repent, watch and pray. Tell the Gospel wherever you can and to all you can.  God's Word... the Word made flesh in Jesus, will never pass away. 

And in God's time... we will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud raising all of his people to be with him.... yes... in time... today... tomorrow... and forever. 

Rejoice in this time and may God direct our hearts in love towards him and love towards one another to do what is right.

Thanks be to God!

Looking back from Eternity

 

I wonder what it's like to look back from eternity. What does God see?

What does the water see in the stream after it has passed by me? Water that flows on and on and on forever. Water with life in it passing by. I can sample and live on a few drops of water as it continues to pass by me to another place and another time.

What is God's Law in reverse? All the "You shall" and the "You shall not."

What do God's children see as they rest in waiting for Jesus return and the resurrection? What is it like to look back from heaven?

What does the song of the people of heaven sound like? 

How are God's children gathered together when death comes and my loved one is no longer with me on this earth?

When I read Matthew 5:1-12, commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, all of these questions cause me to pause and ponder and pray and think and act out in love as one of Jesus' disciples.

It's like Jesus went up the mountain... reminding me of Moses going to God for the commandments. But this time Jesus sits down and reverses the commandments. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God in a way that is different somehow, yet really, in time, all the same.

This time Jesus Law seems to reach deep within me. To my gut and the very center of my being. Jesus reaches into my soul and convicts me of the way I treat other people and shows me how to respond to his grace in the love of God and love of my neighbor. Jesus puts Law and Gospel all together in one setting.

On that mountain Jesus makes me sit in the darkness of my sin so that I can clearly see the Light of his saving grace. I need that darkness. When I'm in the darkness of my sin, Jesus Light is blinding, convicting and all that more gracious to me in my life, here and now.

When I think about looking back from eternity to now through the lens of Jesus grace and action upon the cross... I'm deeply inspired to act out in love. And this response isn't a response of paying back... rather it is a response of love, joy, happiness and  hunger to love God. Oh how I want to see Jesus and to feel his love!

You see, God's grace is somewhat like an inheritance. I can't do anything to receive God's grace. I can't earn an inheritance. Nor do I deserve the inheritance because of my status or family. God adopted me and brought me to him out of that same grace and love that only God can give.

As I sit at the feet of Jesus on that mountain and he teaches the Beatitudes to me, I hear of blessing. Blessings for people that live in a world of trouble... yet are blessed. Blessings that encourage me to love my neighbor in a different way. Blessings to me as I'm in my darkest times and blessings for those around me who suffer as well.  Blessings that pass through this earth ,this time, and move back and forth from eternity where God lives and loves his children.

I see the actions and ministry of Jesus on that mountain and it becomes clear that Jesus is the One who fulfilled all the Beatitudes of which he speaks. It's so different from the Law of God to Moses, where I think I am to obey all the commandments to see the grace of God. It's the reverse here. Jesus fulfilled all the Law of God to Moses, yet came to me and to you to grant us blessing as we live in the mud of our failure to do so on our own. I can't fulfill God's Law!

So here I am at the feet of Jesus on this mountain... poor, mourning, hungry, sinful, greedy, and making war. Yet Jesus sees through it all and tells me that he is here for me, to bless me, and love me, and take me to him eternally. Oh, how I love to see Jesus! How I long to eternally sing his praise and respond!

So what am I to do? As Jesus blessed me... I respond in the same love and example Jesus gave me. I bless my neighbor, with love, compassion, care and a reflection of the Light of Christ.

Why? Because my eyes have turned from my own sin and darkness to the eternal Light of Jesus righteousness and love for all his people and all creation. I no longer need to stare at myself and the mud of my sin because it's all changed. Jesus turned me from myself to look at his Light. 

Jesus permits me to look back from eternity and act out the love He has freely given.

Now I can see a little bit of what it's like to look back from eternity. I see love and righteousness only in Jesus.

Thanks be to God!