Archive for March, 2010
One Painful Decision
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. -Mark 10:17-22
“Sometimes the distance between where you are and where God wants you to be is the one painful decision you refuse to make.” -Craig Groeschel
I find this to be one of the saddest stories in Scripture—the story of someone who was so close, but was unable to take the final step. In asking a difficult thing of him, Jesus was not being unfair or harsh. In fact, the passage tells us that Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” Jesus had compassion on him. What Jesus asked of the man was only what was necessary for him to leave behind in order to follow Christ. For Peter, it was leaving his fishing nets… and his fear. For Thomas, it was leaving behind his need to be convinced, his need to see and touch in order to believe. We must leave whatever rules us in order truly to follow Him.
What are you holding on to?
Open Our Ears
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
“Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” -Luke 8:8
Henri Nouwen writes:
“From all that I said about our worried, overfilled lives, it is clear that we are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us. We have often become deaf, unable to know when God calls us and unable to understand in which direction he calls us.
“Thus our lives have become absurd. In the word absurd we learn the Latin word surdus, which means “deaf.” A spiritual life requires discipline because we need to learn to listen to God, who constantly speaks but whom we seldom hear.
“When, however, we learn to listen, our lives become obedient lives. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means “listening.” A spiritual discipline is necessary in order to move slowly from an absurd to an obedient life, from a life filled with noisy worries to a life in which there is some free inner space where we can listen to our God and follow his guidance.
“Jesus’ life was a life of obedience. He was always listening to the Father, always attentive to his voice, always alert for his directions. Jesus was “all ear.” That is true prayer: being all ear for God. The core of all prayer is indeed listening, obediently standing in the presence of God.”
Father God, please make me “all ear” for You. Help me learn to hear You and obey. Especially this week, help me to make time and space in my life so that I can hear Your voice. Amen.
Open Our Eyes
Monday, March 29th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
[...]
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” -Luke 24:13-16,28-32 (if you want, you can read the entire story here).
What a mysterious story this is! It occurs right after Jesus’ resurrection, when He appears a number of times to different groups of His followers. I love what these men say after Jesus disappears from their sight: “Were not our hearts burning within us…?”
Jesus promised that He would be with us always, but often we fail to recognize His presence and His work in us and around us. We tend think of His promises to be with us as nice words that Jesus spoke to give us hope, rather than as a description of the reality of His constant presence. Our eyes are sometimes just as blind as these men’s were. But also maybe you, as these men did, have felt your heart “burning” in you when Jesus revealed Himself in a particularly clear way to you or showed you something in His Word.
We are now entering the Passion Week—the week of Christ’s suffering and death. What better time is there to concentrate on experiencing Jesus’ presence in our lives and keeping our eyes open for Him?
God, please open my eyes to Your presence in my life and Your work in the world around me. As I enter into the week of Your passion, help me to experience Your presence, love, and transforming work in my life. Help me to make time to wait on You this week, and as I do, please reveal Yourself to me. Amen.
You Will Never Fall
Sunday, March 28th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
As we prepare for worship, would you pray this prayer and take a few moments to meditate on the passage of Scripture we will be studying?
Father God, please open my ears to hear what you have to say to me this morning. As I read Your Word and consider it, help me see what You want to do in my life. Amen.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” -2 Peter 1:3-11
Questions to consider:
-Peter says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. How has God provided for you recently?
-Of the things Peter says we should add to our faith, which areas are you doing well in? Which areas do you struggle with?
-What next step do you think God wants you to take in order to grow in those areas?
Be Still And Know
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
…the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. -Luke 5:15-16
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.” -Psalm 46:10
Sometimes being quiet before God seems almost impossible. We are surrounded by constant noise and activity. But even Jesus—even when His ministry was increasing and the crowds were pressing in—often withdrew to solitude. It is important to fulfill our responsibilities well, but far too frequently, what we do and how we do it are not in obedience to God because we refused to stop, listen, and hear what He desires from us. How can we do what He asks if we cannot hear?
Is it possible that God is less interested in receiving our well-intentioned activity than He is in receiving our whole hearts?
Before you do anything else today or get involved in a project or activity, would you take just five minutes to be completely still and silent before God? It will be difficult, but even if you don’t notice anything happening, it will be changing you. If your mind wanders, just focus it back by meditating momentarily on a single aspect of God’s nature, such as His mercy or His sovereign power. If people are around, you can even lock yourself in the bathroom for five minutes and sit quietly on the floor. Don’t wait…
Listening, Love, And Obedience
Friday, March 26th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… -1 John 4:18
Why do we sometimes find it so difficult to listen to God and obey Him?
Henri Nouwen writes: “We are poor listeners because we are afraid that there is something other than love in God. This is not so strange since we seldom, if ever, experience love without a taint of jealousy, resentment, revenge, or even hatred. Often we see love surrounded by limitations and conditions. We tend to doubt what presents itself to us as love and are always on guard, prepared for disappointments. For this reason we find it hard simply to listen or to obey. But Jesus truly listened and obeyed because only he knew the love of his Father: (John 6:46) ‘No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.’”
When we understand and believe how deeply God loves us, then we also take Him at His word when He says:
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.
For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
When we understand the depth of His love for us as Jesus did, then we can listen and obey God fearlessly!
Some Things Are Worth Suffering For
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | Lent Meditations | No Comments
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
-Hebrews 12:1-3
We go to extraordinary lengths to avoid suffering. Just walk through the aisles at any pharmacy and look at the sheer number of products available to ease every imaginable discomfort! Often we have to suffer because we don’t have a choice: when we come down with an illness, lose a job, or experience emotional pain caused by bad choices someone else made, there isn’t much we can do to avoid the hurt. But how many times have you actually chosen some sort of suffering?
This makes me think of the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 26:53-54, after one of His disciples tried to fight the crowd sent to arrest Jesus: “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”
Jesus didn’t have to suffer. He could have crushed the entire Roman army with a word, or prevented the religious leaders from having Him killed. But instead, He endured the cross because of the joy awaiting Him. He knew that His death would mean that countless people would be able to know God and be at peace with Him—and that it would be the first step in setting right all the things that were wrong with the world. There are some things worth suffering for. If God calls you to bear something difficult in order to accomplish something He says is worth it… how will you respond?
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