SCRIPTURE
Matt. 24:3 ¶ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
OBSERVATION
Jesus is coming again! This truth is consistently echoed from Matthew to Revelation. I cant’ speak for you but I’m ready right NOW! Eternity with Him sounds very good.
We all want an E.T.A. (Estimated time of Arrival) but God has chosen to keep the specific time to Himself. This unknown fact keeps us on our toes and causes us to depend upon Him each and every day. We are to live every day as if it were our last. There are signs, however, which indicate His return could happen at any moment. In Revelation 22:12 it says: “Behold, I am coming soon” Are you ready.
APPLICATION
If you are like me, you want to be in “The Know!” I want to know all the details; be informed of all the data, be able to speak my opinion and be prepared in my mind for any surprises. Our Christian lives, however, are to be lived on the basis of TRUST and not knowledge. As we put our faith and confidence in Jesus, we can trust him to give us the knowledge we need and determine the right time. That goes for everything else in our lives too. Timing is important. If you have been waiting a long time for God to answer your prayers, remember these four things.
1. If your prayer request is wrong He may say “NO”
2. If the timing is wrong, God will say, “SLOW”
3. If you are wrong, God will say ”GROW”
4. When the timing is right, God will say, “LET’S GO”.
Check out 2 Peter 3:9 - You may rejoice that He hasn’t come yet!
PRAYER
O Lord - Come Quickly
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
You Are Invited!
SCRIPTURE
Matt. 22:1 ¶ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
Matt. 22:2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
Matt. 22:3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. NIV
OBSERVATION
As I read these verses today and the rest of the chapter, I realize how desperately God wants us to be in His presence. He goes to great lengths to make sure everyone is invited to a feast yet the surprising thing is: many refuse to come. Imagine… A free meal and no one accepts the invitation! In our culture, free food is an automatic YES when invited. I can’t remember the last time I said NO to a free meal!
Possibly they are too busy with other things or maybe they were not interested in what was being served. The truth, however, might be - they just weren’t hungry!
Sometimes I find myself feeding on things that are temporal and experience a fullness of sorts that leaves me with no appetite for the eternal. I am FULL but not FILLED with the Holy Spirit. Jesus invites us to set our minds upon eternal things. (Col 3:2) He invites us to feed and think upon what is true, noble and right… (Phil 4:8) If we are to do this, we may need to adjust our eating habits. What are you full of today?
APPLICATION
I am going to eat from God’s table FIRST. I will not fill up on the things that distract me from God. My mother use to say: Timmy, don’t eat that candy because it will ruin your appetite for dinner. Well… Jesus has provided a full course meal and I am deciding not to ruin my appetite by eating too much of the temporal world. After all, man doesn’t live by bread alone.(Matt 4:4)
PRAYER
Jesus, may you help me make wise decisions today and may I acquire a taste for your word and your wisdom. I choose to be filled with your Spirit rather than filled with temporal things. O Jesus, baptize me in the Holy Spirit a fresh today.
Matt. 22:1 ¶ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
Matt. 22:2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
Matt. 22:3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. NIV
OBSERVATION
As I read these verses today and the rest of the chapter, I realize how desperately God wants us to be in His presence. He goes to great lengths to make sure everyone is invited to a feast yet the surprising thing is: many refuse to come. Imagine… A free meal and no one accepts the invitation! In our culture, free food is an automatic YES when invited. I can’t remember the last time I said NO to a free meal!
Possibly they are too busy with other things or maybe they were not interested in what was being served. The truth, however, might be - they just weren’t hungry!
Sometimes I find myself feeding on things that are temporal and experience a fullness of sorts that leaves me with no appetite for the eternal. I am FULL but not FILLED with the Holy Spirit. Jesus invites us to set our minds upon eternal things. (Col 3:2) He invites us to feed and think upon what is true, noble and right… (Phil 4:8) If we are to do this, we may need to adjust our eating habits. What are you full of today?
APPLICATION
I am going to eat from God’s table FIRST. I will not fill up on the things that distract me from God. My mother use to say: Timmy, don’t eat that candy because it will ruin your appetite for dinner. Well… Jesus has provided a full course meal and I am deciding not to ruin my appetite by eating too much of the temporal world. After all, man doesn’t live by bread alone.(Matt 4:4)
PRAYER
Jesus, may you help me make wise decisions today and may I acquire a taste for your word and your wisdom. I choose to be filled with your Spirit rather than filled with temporal things. O Jesus, baptize me in the Holy Spirit a fresh today.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 20:13-16
13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?
14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
OBSERVATION
The workers in this parable expected a different result from the one they received. At the end of the day, all the workers lined up to get paid in reverse order from their time of hire. Interestingly enough, it would seem that the master could have lined them up differently, but chose not to. So the men that had worked all day long stood and watched as those who had worked for only a couple of hours received the same pay as what they were promised.
I would guess that had I been one of these, I would have been thinking that perhaps the master had decided to pay me more! My hopes would have been lifted, but only for a moment. As soon as the next group of workers stepped up (they had worked a few more hours then the previous group) and received the same pay, my hopes would have been dashed again. At that point, I would start to get a little frustrated, starting to stew on the injustice of working all day and getting paid the same as those who had worked for only a few hours.
I can see myself being the man who objects to the master for this perceived injustice. Of course, the master's response is unanswerable — you agreed to work for the wage I have paid you.
APPLICATION
We are always worried that we are going to get the short end of the stick somehow. One of my sons is in a stage of life where he feels that he is always being treated unfairly. Somehow he perceives that his brothers are always being treated better and that his lot in life is somehow less than.
I think this tendency is innate in all of us. We constantly compare ourselves with what others are receiving and are constantly worried that we are going to be treated fairly. I think sometimes this expresses itself in the way we treat those to whom we are responsible — kids, employees, etc. We are obsessed with making sure we treat them equally because anything different from equal is unfair.
But this parable teaches us that this internal tendency is not a good one. If we compare the workers in the vineyard to those who have chosen to follow Christ and labor in His Kingdom, then we immediately begin to see how we are exactly like those who worked starting in the morning. We are constantly wanting to compare ourselves to each other and when we see what we perceive as an injustice in the way they are being blessed or recompensed or rewarded or whatever, we start to whine to God.
What we forget is that we are fortunate to be working in the vineyard to begin with! The reward of the Master is what we are working for, not to get more then our fellow laborers.
PRAYER
Lord, help me not to fall into the trap of comparing myself with others. Let me be concerned about my relationship with You first and foremost. Dig the root of comparison out of my heart. I find that this desire to outshine others is one that keeps creeping to the surface. Help me, my Lord!
Matthew 20:13-16
13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?
14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
OBSERVATION
The workers in this parable expected a different result from the one they received. At the end of the day, all the workers lined up to get paid in reverse order from their time of hire. Interestingly enough, it would seem that the master could have lined them up differently, but chose not to. So the men that had worked all day long stood and watched as those who had worked for only a couple of hours received the same pay as what they were promised.
I would guess that had I been one of these, I would have been thinking that perhaps the master had decided to pay me more! My hopes would have been lifted, but only for a moment. As soon as the next group of workers stepped up (they had worked a few more hours then the previous group) and received the same pay, my hopes would have been dashed again. At that point, I would start to get a little frustrated, starting to stew on the injustice of working all day and getting paid the same as those who had worked for only a few hours.
I can see myself being the man who objects to the master for this perceived injustice. Of course, the master's response is unanswerable — you agreed to work for the wage I have paid you.
APPLICATION
We are always worried that we are going to get the short end of the stick somehow. One of my sons is in a stage of life where he feels that he is always being treated unfairly. Somehow he perceives that his brothers are always being treated better and that his lot in life is somehow less than.
I think this tendency is innate in all of us. We constantly compare ourselves with what others are receiving and are constantly worried that we are going to be treated fairly. I think sometimes this expresses itself in the way we treat those to whom we are responsible — kids, employees, etc. We are obsessed with making sure we treat them equally because anything different from equal is unfair.
But this parable teaches us that this internal tendency is not a good one. If we compare the workers in the vineyard to those who have chosen to follow Christ and labor in His Kingdom, then we immediately begin to see how we are exactly like those who worked starting in the morning. We are constantly wanting to compare ourselves to each other and when we see what we perceive as an injustice in the way they are being blessed or recompensed or rewarded or whatever, we start to whine to God.
What we forget is that we are fortunate to be working in the vineyard to begin with! The reward of the Master is what we are working for, not to get more then our fellow laborers.
PRAYER
Lord, help me not to fall into the trap of comparing myself with others. Let me be concerned about my relationship with You first and foremost. Dig the root of comparison out of my heart. I find that this desire to outshine others is one that keeps creeping to the surface. Help me, my Lord!
Friday, May 2, 2008
We Forget So Quick
A quick post today because I failed to get this done this morning!
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 106:13
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.
OBSERVATION
The people of Israel saw more demonstrations of God's power then any other people group. The Scriptures are full of the stories of God's miraculous interventions and power displays. But even though they experienced God's hand of deliverance time and again, they also turned away from him time and again.
APPLICATION
We are no different from Israel. We are humans and humans have a tendency to forget very quickly what God has done. One day we are convinced He knows what He is doing and are committed to follow Him til the end. Twenty-four hours later we have forgotten all about it and are convinced that He has abandoned us and we know a better way.
We forget too quickly. It is one of our ever present weaknesses. To combat this, we would do well to rehearse God's goodness regularly so as to remind ourselves. We must keep fresh in our minds, because the half-life of our recollections of God's works is altogether too short.
PRAYER
God, help me to keep your goodness ever before me! I will declare your works at all times so that my heart may not forget your faithfulness.
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 106:13
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.
OBSERVATION
The people of Israel saw more demonstrations of God's power then any other people group. The Scriptures are full of the stories of God's miraculous interventions and power displays. But even though they experienced God's hand of deliverance time and again, they also turned away from him time and again.
APPLICATION
We are no different from Israel. We are humans and humans have a tendency to forget very quickly what God has done. One day we are convinced He knows what He is doing and are committed to follow Him til the end. Twenty-four hours later we have forgotten all about it and are convinced that He has abandoned us and we know a better way.
We forget too quickly. It is one of our ever present weaknesses. To combat this, we would do well to rehearse God's goodness regularly so as to remind ourselves. We must keep fresh in our minds, because the half-life of our recollections of God's works is altogether too short.
PRAYER
God, help me to keep your goodness ever before me! I will declare your works at all times so that my heart may not forget your faithfulness.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 17:4
4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
OBSERVATION
I love the way Peter is always a man of action. He was the one who walked on water and he's always the first to make a fool of himself. He is always making rash statements and doing rash things — but he's also the one who does walk on water and who declares the true nature of Jesus.
Here we see him scrambling to please Jesus by offering to build three shelters. A silly thing in retrospect for sure. Visitors from heaven most likely need no shelters — they are not subject to the natural realm (thus the whole flying around in the air thing).
Peter's heart is in the right place, but he doesn't stop and think and that sometimes gets him in trouble. I love how Jesus doesn't even bother replying in the story!
APPLICATION
Stop and think. Yes be zealous for God, but pause and see what the Master wants you to do and don't just do what you think the Master would want you to do!
PRAYER
Lord, give me Peter's heart, but someone else's brains!
Matthew 17:4
4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
OBSERVATION
I love the way Peter is always a man of action. He was the one who walked on water and he's always the first to make a fool of himself. He is always making rash statements and doing rash things — but he's also the one who does walk on water and who declares the true nature of Jesus.
Here we see him scrambling to please Jesus by offering to build three shelters. A silly thing in retrospect for sure. Visitors from heaven most likely need no shelters — they are not subject to the natural realm (thus the whole flying around in the air thing).
Peter's heart is in the right place, but he doesn't stop and think and that sometimes gets him in trouble. I love how Jesus doesn't even bother replying in the story!
APPLICATION
Stop and think. Yes be zealous for God, but pause and see what the Master wants you to do and don't just do what you think the Master would want you to do!
PRAYER
Lord, give me Peter's heart, but someone else's brains!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
SCRIPTURE
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
OBSERVATION
Jesus is coming back one day and He will reward us for what we have done. Rewards are different from salvation. Salvation is not a reward for anything we have done or could ever do. It is not something earned — it is a free gift of God. But after salvation, it is clear that our level of commitment and contribution is directly proportionate to the rewards we will receive.
APPLICATION
I need to be more aware of serving and laying down my life and my goals for others. One of the paradoxes of Scripture is that by laying down our life, we find it. I must continually seek out ways to give and serve others.
PRAYER
Lord, open my eyes to see others — to see them as precious commodities that You love and desire me to serve even as you served. Help me to see people the way You see them. Amen.
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
OBSERVATION
Jesus is coming back one day and He will reward us for what we have done. Rewards are different from salvation. Salvation is not a reward for anything we have done or could ever do. It is not something earned — it is a free gift of God. But after salvation, it is clear that our level of commitment and contribution is directly proportionate to the rewards we will receive.
APPLICATION
I need to be more aware of serving and laying down my life and my goals for others. One of the paradoxes of Scripture is that by laying down our life, we find it. I must continually seek out ways to give and serve others.
PRAYER
Lord, open my eyes to see others — to see them as precious commodities that You love and desire me to serve even as you served. Help me to see people the way You see them. Amen.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Jesus is After the Heart
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 15:16-18
16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "
OBSERVATION
In the first twenty verse of Matthew 15, we see Jesus turning the whole system that the Pharisees had created upside down. The Pharisees had invested countless time and energy into figuring out how to best follow the Law of God — the Torah. But in their zeal for God's Law, they had actually ended up ignoring the very thing they set out to protect. They had not only missed God's heart, but they had failed to keep the Law anyway (see verse vss 5-6).
But Jesus didn't stop there, He also challenged some of the basics of Jewish tradition. The culinary rules were followed not just by the Pharisees but by any self-respecting Jew. These rules dictated what you could eat and what you couldn't eat. If you ate the wrong things, you became unclean. To us today, the whole notion of clean and unclean tends to refer only to the external state of a person (are they dirty or not?). But in the Jewish culture, the whole world was divided up into clean and unclean. And whether or not you were clean or unclean determined your ability to interact with others, worship God and generally operate in society.
So a lot was invested in not eating the wrong things and only eating the right things. This is what God laid out in the Law of Moses. It was okay to eat animals with cloven hoofs, but not those with scales. It was okay to eat fish with scales, but not those without. And so forth. Eat the wrong thing and you couldn't go to the Temple, you had to go through ritual ablutions to cleanse yourself and the list went on.
But Jesus turns to His disciples and says, it's not about the kind of food you eat, it's about your heart.
APPLICATION
The whole point of the Law was to try to teach the people of Israel God's heart. But as humans so frequently do, they reduced it to a set of rules and regulations. A set of checkboxes that could be hammered through like a pre-flight checklist. If I do these things, then I'm okay with God.
But Jesus is saying, God is not interested in the list as much as He is interested in the heart. It is not that what you do doesn't matter — because it most certainly does. What you do flows from something internal. You can do the right things for the wrong motives and vice-versa. The heart — the motives — are what is most important. Right motives will result in right action.
We get so fixated on doing the right things, that we forget that what God really wants is a hear that is committed to Him. What we give Him altogether too frequently, is a heart committed to the checkboxes.
PRAYER
Lord, teach me to operate out of a heart that loves You and seeks You first. Far too often I assume that there is a formula that I must follow in order to be close to you and I end up doing the formula rather then seeking your face. Help me to be a man that seeks after you with all of my heart. Amen.
Matthew 15:16-18
16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "
OBSERVATION
In the first twenty verse of Matthew 15, we see Jesus turning the whole system that the Pharisees had created upside down. The Pharisees had invested countless time and energy into figuring out how to best follow the Law of God — the Torah. But in their zeal for God's Law, they had actually ended up ignoring the very thing they set out to protect. They had not only missed God's heart, but they had failed to keep the Law anyway (see verse vss 5-6).
But Jesus didn't stop there, He also challenged some of the basics of Jewish tradition. The culinary rules were followed not just by the Pharisees but by any self-respecting Jew. These rules dictated what you could eat and what you couldn't eat. If you ate the wrong things, you became unclean. To us today, the whole notion of clean and unclean tends to refer only to the external state of a person (are they dirty or not?). But in the Jewish culture, the whole world was divided up into clean and unclean. And whether or not you were clean or unclean determined your ability to interact with others, worship God and generally operate in society.
So a lot was invested in not eating the wrong things and only eating the right things. This is what God laid out in the Law of Moses. It was okay to eat animals with cloven hoofs, but not those with scales. It was okay to eat fish with scales, but not those without. And so forth. Eat the wrong thing and you couldn't go to the Temple, you had to go through ritual ablutions to cleanse yourself and the list went on.
But Jesus turns to His disciples and says, it's not about the kind of food you eat, it's about your heart.
APPLICATION
The whole point of the Law was to try to teach the people of Israel God's heart. But as humans so frequently do, they reduced it to a set of rules and regulations. A set of checkboxes that could be hammered through like a pre-flight checklist. If I do these things, then I'm okay with God.
But Jesus is saying, God is not interested in the list as much as He is interested in the heart. It is not that what you do doesn't matter — because it most certainly does. What you do flows from something internal. You can do the right things for the wrong motives and vice-versa. The heart — the motives — are what is most important. Right motives will result in right action.
We get so fixated on doing the right things, that we forget that what God really wants is a hear that is committed to Him. What we give Him altogether too frequently, is a heart committed to the checkboxes.
PRAYER
Lord, teach me to operate out of a heart that loves You and seeks You first. Far too often I assume that there is a formula that I must follow in order to be close to you and I end up doing the formula rather then seeking your face. Help me to be a man that seeks after you with all of my heart. Amen.
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