Month: July 2024

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Which son are you?

Are you a Jacob?

Matt 21 Little Ones Testify 

Jesus cares for the little ones and they care for Him. As Matthew is listening, he is noting the contrast to how the little ones honor Christ and the religious leaders scorn Him. So he tells them the parable of the two sons to get their attention. There were two sons and both were given a chore to accomplish. One said, I will do it and the other said I will not. The point being that God gave these religious leaders a job to teach the people about God but instead they did not. They only elevated themselves and not God. They missed the point of honoring and teaching them about God. They were like the one son who said I will go but he did not because he was a hypocrite. The other son said I will not but then changed his mind and went.He is the picture of the disciples and if truth be known, he is a picture of us. We say we will go and make disciples but we don’t. We are busy about many things but not the things of the kingdom.

 Today, consider which son you are. Do you honor God and serve Him and go and spread the good news or are you like the religious leaders who said they would but did not. 

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Praying for the next generation

Psalm 72 As a parent or a grandparent, we want the best for our children. Babies are cute and sweet but with age they are brought to the point of making decisions that will lead to godliness or ungodliness. Parents have the responsibility to guide their children in the way they should go. Every godly parent should heed the words of this psalm.

King David wanted God to grant His son Solomon to have the ability and the wisdom to make just and fair decisions so that he could judge fairly. David knew just as any parent, who is a praying parent, that when that happens families will be at peace, the oppressed will be defended and delivered, the oppressor will be crushed. In addition, the godly will flourish, peace will prevail, the needy rescued when they cry for help. David, like any parent, sees the need to defend them as he takes pity on the poor and needy because he values their life.

So how do we pray for the next generation? Pray that they are wise, and see the need to protect the innocent, that they have wisdom and the ability to defend the poorest of the poor, they honor them as people made in the image of God who are valuable, they are able to make wise, just and fair decisions

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Count Your Blessings

Count blessings

Matt 13 Blessings

We sing Count Your Blessings, name them one by one and you will see what God has done. The disciples asked Jesus why he taught in Parables and he answered: “But your eyes are blessed because they see, and your ears because they hear.” Stop and consider this: your eyes are blessed. You see what the world denies. So what blessings do your eyes see today?  You see the beauty of the growing plants, the sky with its changes moment by moment. What do your ears hear? The birds are singing in my backyard and I hear them. I also hear the words of kindness and the words of those who speak the Word from the pulpit. I hear the sounds of my family as my head prays for me and a friend prays for me. 

Truly we should stop and count our blessings! What blessing can you name today and give God thanks for those! 

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Are you listening?

Are we listening

Matt 11 Mercy not Sacrifice

Over and over, Jesus is gracious, but when the Pharisees continue to berate him, He speaks out and acts out for He is gracious. Why did Matthew paint such a contrast picture for his Jewish audience but to show them their heart. God sent His Son to save them but instead they reject Him. As it was then, it is today, nothing has changed when the heart is not changed. Matthew shows us the true heart of the Pharisees as a point to show us where our true heart is. Jeremiah wrote: “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked,” [Jer 17:9] 

Jesus graciously reveals His power to save when he heals and instead of rejoicing, these Pharisees condemn and plot to kill him. They are like King Arab who was given the promise of saving himself and his kingdom, but chose to ignore Elijah and in the end he was killed on the battlefield. God desires mercy, not sacrifice, but like the Pharisees we want to “earn” our salvation and reject the beautiful words of peace by our Savior. 

Today, listen and heed the word of the Lord and be saved. Today is the day of salvation. What are you and I listening to; the voice of the enemy or the voice of the Lord? 

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The Worry Syndrome

Matthew 10 Do Not Worry!

One of the greatest challenges in our lives is that we tend to worry. We worry about many things and this is a tool of the enemy that comes to seek, kill and destroy. Worry is one of those nagging sins that we carry like a trophy and it disturbs not just ourselves but spills over into our relationships with others. We worry about what tomorrow will bring or we worry about what we shall wear or we worry about life in general. In other words, we worry about many things. 

Jesus is teaching the disciples about what will happen after he has departed back to heaven. He reminds them, the world will hate you [and I] and seek to undermine your [our]  message of salvation.  He said, “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.”  [Matt 10:19-20]  This is a powerful reminder that the Holy Spirit who lives in us will bring words and thoughts to our mind. Why then do we worry? He, the Holy Spirit, who is God in Spirit, will bring to our minds what we need to think or say. 

The bottom line is this: when we worry we are not trusting God and His Holy Spirit. Therefore, reader: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” [Phil 4:6-7]

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A Heart of Compassion

Have compassion on a fallen brother

Matthew 9 I Desire Compassion

One of the marks of the ministry of Jesus was His compassionate spirit for His people who were suffering. Twice in this chapter He reminds the religious leaders that this is the true ministry of His kingdom. What was it that He saw and the religious leaders did not and often we do not as well? He saw the heart of mankind, but unlike like the religious leaders who saw with their physical eyes but not their spiritual eyes, Jesus saw the heart and had compassion. 

Matthew recorded these stories to remind his Jewish audience that Messiah sees and understands all. Also, he shared these stories one after another to remind them that one must see with the heart not just the physical presence, which is what Messiah did. 

So where should we have a heart of compassion? Recently a friend shared out of her heart the hard news of her son’s suicide. How do we respond to news such as this? It is not to wear the cloak of the Pharisee’s judgment but the cloak of the words of Jesus: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”[Matt 9:13] 

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Jesus is authenticated

Trust and Obey

Matthew 8 Miracles authenticate

Jesus continues to reveal His power that authenticate who He is. Listen to what the leper asked: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Jesus answered: I am willing. Jesus says the same to us when we seek healing from sin. He is willing to save us from our deadly sins but there is a warning given with the healing. Go and show yourself to the priest. What does Jesus want us to do with our salvation but to go and show ourself to the unsaved so that they might hear and be healed. 

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Refining

God tests our heart motives

Proverbs 17 God raises up and puts down leaders and when a leader is in that position, God will refine them as if they were gold or silver through testing. The dictionary helps us understand this process: In metallurgy, the operation of refining large quantities of gold or silver by means of lead, in the vessel called a test. In this process, the extraneous matter is vitrified, scarified or destroyed, and the metal left pure. 

The proverbs author uses this illustration as he writes about mankind. He notes that first of all the heart will yield to no force other than that of God. Dross in metal may be discovered and expurged by fire, but evil in the heart can be discovered and dealt with only by God and He alone places tests in our life to purge of us of sin so we may be pure for His kingdom work. 

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Wise or Foolish?

The wise and the foolish

Matthew 7We are often advised about our life and the decisions we make and this chapter reminds us that what we hear we must be discerning. Some advice is pure and worthy to be heeded and other advice we should discard. We need wisdom about many things and Jesus taught as one with authority, therefore we should heed and obey His advice.  As he ended his teaching he said: “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” [Matt 7:24]

We have been gifted with the Word of the Lord and it behooves us to listen and do what He says. The challenge before us is do we want to be wise or foolish? That seems rather simple, but the proof is in our words and deeds. Is our “house” built on the “ROCK’ which is Jesus and His teaching or on the words of men? 

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God is our Comfort

Do you know your destiny

Matthew 6 Comfort & Wisdom  

There are times in our lives when we need to stop what we are doing and just ask the Lord how to comfort others. This chapter guides us through that grieving process as we recall the Lord’s Prayer which is one our Savior gave his disciples when they asked how to pray. 

Our Father which art in heaven. He knows all and is aware of the grief our friends are facing. 

Thy kingdom come is the desired outcome of anyone who seeks God and seeks His place.  

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As we echo these words, may our hearts seek comfort for those who have lost a loved one.  

Give us our daily bread which is needful when we are grieving. Sustaining one’s health is critical, and we can offer sustenance to the grieving people. 

Forgive us our debts/trespasses as we forgive others. The remaining family needs this reminder because often we feel guilt over the one who committed suicide. 

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom and the glory forever. Those who have remained after are tempted to try to understand this death, but God wants us to trust Him and leave the results to Him. 

Today stop and pray for those who are facing this path and pray for God’s comfort. 

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