Sixth Friday in Lent: Lent 2014

Lenten Devotional 

John 6

This is the bread chapter.  It starts with the breaking of bread for  the feeding of five thousand and closes with the leaving of followers because of Jesus calling them to eat the bread of his flesh.  As we read these passages, we are reminded always that it is not on bread alone we survive.  This is a physical reality as well as a spiritual reality.

Jesus want the people to realize that the miracles he sis performing a the signs and wonders pointing to him being the messiah.  In this chapter, we see the people just wanting the goods, free bread and food, but they do not to buy into the life being offered.  The do not want to believe.  The crowds and the people just want a continues flow of blessings.  Jesus is calling them to task.  He is telling the crowds and the people that there is more to His proclamations then just the blessings.

This is a similar message for today.  The modern church has become a lot like the church of Jesus' day.  People want the goods and services but not the commitment and hard work.  WE pay the church to get a good message and good programs to teach our kids a decent way to live and stay out of too much trouble.  But we do not want to invest our beleif past Sunday.  The church of today wants to keep secular separate from sacred in all ways.  This is not what Jesus is teaching.  We need to eat the bread of the five thousand when we need a boost of faith, but we also must consume the flesh and blood of Christ in belief and spiritual strength.  We need to make every moment a sacred moment.  

First Thursday of Lent: Lent Devotional 2014

Lenten Devotional

Matthew 5-7

The reading for today is the bulk of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  These passages are some of the most most difficult and blessed passages in the New Testament.  For these passages ring of great hope of the lowly and hopeless.  But they also speak of great demands on the life of one who follows after what God desires. 

the first chapter we read is the great list of blessings.  We can probably find our self in at least one if not more of the blessings listed by Jesus.  Who has not mourned a loved one or fells meek.  We gain a connection quickly and acknowledge in one way or another a blessing will be coming for us in the life to come.  

Jesus soon turns from a great blessing to mighty teachings.  We are left in trouble and frustration.  For what is to come seems gravely hard to follow.  Jesus is not just asking the hearers to follow the current laws of Judaism, they are being asked to go even farther.  

Jesus tells people to cut out and off body parts if they even think or look in ways that are contrary to law.  What I think is that Jesus is coming to a point on what the foundation these very specific rules demand.  By the end of chapter five, Jesus makes a statement on oaths, "All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."  Then he teaches on giving more than required.  When demand the cloak give them your tunic.  There is something greater to come by following.  The life of a follower of Jesus will be profoundly different. This is what what the foundation of the Old Testament Law in ancient times. The follower of Jesus is called to stand out for following in fantastic ways.  

We finish our reading today with the parable of the wise and foolish builders.  For one had built on the sand while the other built on the rock.  The one who listens and follows the teachings is like the one who builds on the rock.  When the rains, winds and storms come through, the house will stand.  Everything Jesus just presented was hard and difficult.  Some was even radical to the people listening.  Some is radical for us today.  But when the storms of life and society come through, the person built on the rock will withstand.  May this be our building foundation.  

Ash Wednesday: Lent Devotion 2014

Lenten Devotional

Matthew 1-4

I am challenging the congregation I serve to read through all four gospels in preparation for Easter this year. The challenge is based on the fact that I am the interim at this time.  We are going through a process of discernment for the future mission of the church centered around a process that calls for people to move from being members to disciples.  I prefer to think in terms of attenders or audience to followers and participants.  Who better to learn about following Jesus than Jesus and the disciples themselves?

I am challenging my self to write a devotional for each reading in the form of a blog for everyday of reading. So, this is for Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.

Chapter 1 of the gospel is one of the more tedious parts of gospel reading and the next couple of chapters (at least 2 and part of 3) are familiar to even the most casual of Bible readers.  The birth of Jesus, visit of the Magi, and Baptism of Jesus.  I hope you did not just skip over these four chapters without looking at a few of the very strange realities in these passages.  If you did, take a moment to read them with intensity and I will point out a few details that I find interesting.

The part of this reading most people will look past is the genealogy of Jesus.  But there is some very important facts in Jesus' history.  There are four women mentioned in the genealogy with three by direct name.  The three named were not Jewish.  All three were part of other clans.  This was not expected in the days of Jesus.  As a matter of fact, one had a terrible reputation in her city, Rahab.  She was a prostitute in Jericho just prior to the invasion by the Israel. The one unnamed women is Bathsheba.  She is the women David had an affair with and then had her husband killed in battle.  We would not celebrate these moments in our history, but yet Matthew is making a large deal over these truths.   Not a good picture for the Son of God to be born into.  

Nothing is these early pages of Jesus' history seem to be normal till the preaching in Nazareth.  His family is visited by wise men from the east, they all travel in strange directions and Jesus winds up being baptized by some crazy prophet in the desert.  All a little strange. 

I take away some good news from all of this for my life and others.  It does not matter where you come from or where you have been, God can and will use you for His glory if you will let Him.  The people in Jesus' life were not upright.  John the Baptist was strange.  All of these events demonstrate the reality of Paul's statement to the the Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28)  

I hope you will see through the pages of Matthew's opening of the gospel, that God will and wants to use your for His glory and mission in the world.