In the events of Holy Week, today is often labeled “Busy Tuesday.” Jesus was out in public with His disciples. He gave the “Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree,” had His authority challenged by and debated with the Jewish leaders, gave some warning parables, and talked about last things. You can find those events beginning in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 20.
Perhaps the one that intrigues us most is His discourse on the things that will happen at the end of the age, found in Matthew 24-25, Mark 13 and Luke 21. I think those things intrigue us because we see so many of them at least partially fulfilling in our time.
As we read those chapters, especially the two in Matthew, we often focus on the wars, earthquakes, famines, and such. But Jesus did not just tell us about the things going on around us, He warned us of how we are to act amid those things.
He gave the Parable of the 10 Virgins … “Therefore, be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.” [Matthew 25:1-13 HCSB]
He gave the Parable of the Talents … “Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy!” [Matthew 25:14-30 HCSB]
He told about the Sheep and the Goats … “I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” [Matthew 25:31-46 HCSB]
It is not enough to just be aware of the things that will happen at the End of the Age. In the midst of all the upheaval of the End Times, Jesus’ followers are to be alert, faithful, compassionate, and giving.
I am not sure how I was directed to Psalm 143 recently, but as I read through it, I was captured by David’s thoughts. In my Bible it is titled, “A Cry for Help,” and in the first seven verses David outlines the attack of the enemy and his own weakness and dismay.
Then in verse 8 there is a re-focus on the LORD (something David does often). From there until the end of the song, David lists his prayer requests, which we could outline with just two words each. There are six of those two-word phrases. The first is “love me.”
“Let me experience Your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You.” [vs 8a HCSB]
The NKJV version renders it, “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,” and the NIV says it this way, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love.” But I like the way the Holman translates it, “Let me experience Your faithful love.”
The Bible is quite clear that God loves us. In fact, the Bible is God’s unconditional love story for His creation from beginning to end. Repeatedly we are told about God’s love and how it is so different from the way the world loves, but none of that matters until we experience it.
When God’s love becomes real to us as individuals it changes everything. It gives us worth, purpose, and a future. To know we are loved by the Almighty Creator, not just as a part of “mankind,” but as individuals is the greatest experience we can have.
God knows me. God loves me. To wake up each morning with that thought should make each day the best ever!
Yesterday we were reminded in Hebrews 10:23 that we need to hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering. As Christians, we have a solid and secure certainty of God’s care. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “He who promised is faithful.”
There is no better way to begin a new year than to be reminded of God’s love for us. We are loved by the Almighty Creator of the Universe! He knows us individually, all our thoughts are open to Him, all our ways are known. Still, He loves and cares for us.
That love that goes vertically, between our Father God and us, is open to us because of the work that Jesus Christ our Savior did on the cross. But we must also remember that while the cross reaches vertically from us to God, it also reaches horizontally from us to the world.
Right after the writer of Hebrews tells us to hold on to the confession of our hope, he also tells us that we must care for others. “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works.” [Hebrews 10:24]
Our relationship with our faithful God is not exclusive. There is an old song titled “Jesus and Me.” Catchy title, but there is far more to this Christian experience than “Jesus and Me.” It truly is “Jesus and We!”
We are to promote love and good works in one another. That little word translated as “promote” in verse 24 in the Holman Christian Standard Bible literally means to “jab someone so they must respond.”
Every now and again we all need a little “jab” to get moving again in the right direction!
As I look back on Christmas 2020, I see sadness and joys. One sadness came when our California children were locked down so far away. Our plans to be with them faded long before the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was not unexpected. When Christmas arrived, while we knew we would not have them with us, that sadness enveloped us anew.
While sad over our California kids, God blessed us with newfound joys. Our youngest son met a lovely young woman with three children. They became part of our 2020 Christmas celebration, and we laughed and loved and enjoyed watching once again small children amid Christmas Day “chaos!”
I find that the greatest gifts are not usually the material ones. The greatest gifts are those which minister to my heart.
One of my favorite “let us” commands in Hebrews is one that revolves around receiving gifts. “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.” [Hebrews 4:16 HCSB]
We are told to approach God’s Throne of Grace with boldness. Boldness is not arrogance. The Greek word used by the author is “parresia” and it carries the idea of free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, and assurance. It has none of the superiority attitude or overbearing manner contained in arrogance.
No, this boldness is based on our relationship with Christ Jesus our High Priest, and upon His invitation to come into His presence. When we accept His invitation to approach the Throne of Grace, we are to “fear not.”
And, it is at His Throne of Grace that we will find the gifts that minister to our hearts … mercy and grace. 2020 needed a lot of mercy and grace, I am betting 2021 will also! So “let us” approach God’s Throne of Grace with free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage!
Reading Luke 8 on Tuesday morning gave me much to consider. Beginning in Verse 22, Luke tells us three amazing stories about the power and authority of our Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus.
He begins in verses 22-25 with the calming of the storm on the lake. After that when the boat reaches the other side, they arrive in the region of the Gerasenes, opposite Galilee. There they are confronted by a man possessed by demons. Jesus commands the demons to leave the man.
The demons recognize the authority of Jesus that they must leave the man, but they beg Him not to “banish them to the abyss.” [vs 31 HCSB]
Jesus gives them permission to enter a herd of pigs. Unable to contain the “Legion” of demons, the pigs rush down a steep bank and drown. That upsets the men tending the pigs who rush off to report the incident to the town.
When the townsfolk come out to see what happened, they find Jesus and the formerly-demon-possessed man sitting and talking. Verses 36 and 37 report the outcome and as it turns out, it is the same reaction the disciples had when Jesus calmed the storm – fear.
“Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses reported to them how the demon-possessed man was delivered. Then all the people of the Gerasene region asked Him to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear.” [HCSB]
Fear was the response of the disciples when Jesus took authority over the storm, and fear was the response of the people in the region of the Gerasenes when Jesus took authority over demonic powers. In these two incidents we see the power and authority of our Savior, Christ Jesus, over the natural world and over the spiritual world.
No wonder we stand in wonder in the Presence of Jesus! All authority, all power are His!
One of the new customs for the Christmas season is to read one chapter a day from the Gospel of Luke beginning on December 1. I was amazed by Luke 8, the chapter for Tuesday the 8th. It begins by telling us that women who had been healed and delivered were supporting Jesus and His Disciples. Then Jesus gives the Parable of the Seed and the Sower, along with a reminder that we are to be light for all to see. At one point, Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him but were unable to get through the crowd.
The part of the chapter that truly touches me begins in verse 22. After a long day of preaching and ministry, Jesus got in a boat with His disciples and told them to go to the other side of the lake. He was so exhausted He fell asleep and did not even awake when a fierce windstorm arose and threatened to swamp the boat. [Luke 8:22-25]
Finally, the disciples woke Jesus and told Him, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” [vs 24 HCSB]
Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they immediately obeyed Him, and the storm ceased. In its place was a great calm. Of course, that frightened the disciples even more than the storm did.
As I thought on that passage all of a sudden I saw the storm in our country that is going on right now, and I started to chuckle. Let me explain why I laughed. Every politician, from local mayors, to state governors, to congressional leaders, president, and president-elect think they can calm the storm with their proclamations, directives, and strategies. But they cannot. They think – in a way – that they have the power over the storm when they are really in the same boat as the disciples! “Master, Master, we’re going to die!”
Only Jesus has the power and the authority to stop the storm. Even when He was at a low point, exhausted from ministry, He only had to say a word and the cosmos obeyed.
After quieting the storm Jesus had one question for His own, “Where is your faith?” [vs 25 HCSB]
We might ask ourselves that same question!
Before we leave Psalm 95, we need to take note of not just its glorious beginning, but how it ends. The beginning is where we often focus. We are joyfully shouting because our God is Creator and Sustainer of all His Creation and because He is our Maker and our Shepherd.
We cannot, however, ignore the warning that comes at the end.
“Today, if you hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness where your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they had seen what I did. For 40 years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My anger, ‘They will not enter My rest.’” [vs 8-11 HCSB]
There is a warning that we are not to allow our hearts to become hardened. The psalmist uses an incident out of Exodus 17 where the people complained once again before the LORD. Even though they had seen mighty miracles, even though God proved Himself strong on their behalf repeatedly, still they complained.
Complaining is an easy trap to fall into, one that the enemy of our soul is always pushing us towards. Complaining is the opposite of thanksgiving. It narrows our vision and focus to only what is wrong. It pushes the awareness of God’s presence and the appreciation of His blessings out of sight.
When we complain we see only what we think we want or need that we do not have. We fail to see our Shepherd’s abundant mercy, grace, love, and care. Complaining drives us out of the Presence of our God and into a wilderness where we wander around hopeless and lost.
So, let us not harden our hearts. Instead let us lift our hearts with our hands in joyful and triumphant praise to our Great King.
November 10
Who loves you ….
When I awaken in the mornings, the first thing I do is pour a cup of coffee and head to the “bonus” room in our house. It is my room in which to study, pray, write, and just separate myself from thoughts of what needs to be done that day, or the sound of the news and westerns my husband loves to watch in the living room.
It is a quiet room. It keeps me sane most days, as sane as anyone can be in these troubling times. It is my peaceful place. Lots of thoughts and prayers have originated in this room. I love spending time here with the LORD, often thinking about how wonderful and gracious my LORD and Savior is to me.
I was sitting in my room the other day and read a meme on Facebook posted by a lovely young woman that I love very much. It began … “Do you ever sit back and realize ur not anybody’s favorite person ….”
Those words broke my heart and I wept. I wept because the world and life can be so cruel far too often. It seeks to isolate us from the love that others have, as well as to be blind to the love of God that flows to us in so many ways.
I am old and gray now. I have seen difficulties and triumphs. I have witnessed horrors and delights. I have seen too much and yet have not seen enough. I have held newborn babies and dying saints. In it all I cling to the words found in Psalm 27:10. “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord cares for me.” [HCSB]
No matter what life holds, no matter the difficulties, the rejections, the loneliness, disappointments, or trials, even if those who should love me the most abandon me, “the Lord cares for me.”
No one … no one … ever cared for me like Jesus.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=no+one+ever+cared+for+me+like+jesus&docid=607992087596304815&mid=8047B279A9EF5833D8ED8047B279A9EF5833D8ED&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
I love mornings. I am an early riser, usually between 4:30 and 6:00 AM. I wake up, grab a cup of coffee and head to my bonus room in the quiet. I watch as the world gets lighter around me, darkness flees with each passing minute.
In those early morning hours, I write, I pray, I study, I converse with my LORD and Savior. Those hours are the most precious to me – I hate anything that interrupts them.
I think David must have been an early riser. Maybe all shepherds have to be so. Many of his songs speak of mornings and his attention to the LORD upon rising.
“But I will sing of Your strength and will joyfully proclaim Your faithful love in the morning. For You have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.” [Psalm 59:16 HCSB]
God is a stronghold and refuge in the day of trouble. I think 2020 could be described so far as a “year of trouble.” It certainly has abounded with fear, misinformation, loss, hopelessness, and opposition. The horizon of change still seems to be far off. So much talk of things not getting back to normal until … until the infection count goes down … until a vaccine is available … until … until. There seems to be no set plan or date for returning to normal, and I wonder if the old normal will ever return.
Amid all this the church is being called upon to repent and turn back to God. So many heavy-duty issues to deal with daily. Still, amid all this God is reminding us that He alone is our stronghold, He alone is our refuge. It is His strength and His faithful love that comes to us every morning.
Thank you, LORD, for being there each day, providing a stronghold and refuge for your people. Amen.