Den of Thieves, There?
What a day, Father! I am glad that You went through it with me. Nothing too crazy just enough crazy to shake my head some! What a blessing to have you by my side.
Luke 19:45-48 (<<click here to read the passage)
This may get me into trouble, but I think the story in today’s passage alludes to a potential problem that all of us in the church must be wary of. Quoting two different passages of Old Testament Scripture (Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11), Jesus proclaimed,
“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” v46
Jesus drove out the people selling animals for sacrifices from the temple. From past sermons, I have learned that a big part of the problem was that things were rigged to benefit the buyers and not the worshippers. First, there were the money-changers – to buy anything one would have to exchange the money they had for money that would be accepted in the temple. Also, not every sacrifice brought by worshippers was “acceptable”, so if one wanted to offer a sacrifice, they would have to buy one that met the “requirements”. So that’s where the house of prayer became a den of thieves.
Now we no longer offer sacrifices in that Jesus paid the price for our sins once and for all! (Praise His Hoy Name!) But in every church, regardless of music style, regardless of if we abide by a structured order of worship or a very free Spirit-driven one – it makes no difference the components involved. I think that participants have to be wary of becoming thieves.
Don’t we all like getting strokes? We enjoy the praise of our fellow worshippers. Musicians and preachers, even those reading the Scripture or collecting the offerings, can be found guilty of stealing the praise, that only God deserves, for ourselves.
“Pastor, I think that was the best sermon on the Good Samaritan that I have ever heard!”
“Why thank you! I spent all week working on it and searched for just the right illustrations. It was tough but it did turn out pretty well, didn’t it?”
“Your solo today, took my breath away! I wish I could sing like that.”
“I appreciate that. Yeah, I’ve not had the first lesson, just natural talent, I guess. I’ve spent a lot of time for the past month getting it just right. Gotta smile, you know!”
Humility goes a long way and no matter how much time and effort we have put into whatever it is that we offer, all praise should go to the Provider and Sustainer of us all – our awesome Creator God!
Lord Jesus, it makes no difference what our talent may be, inside or outside the church, may we solely be a beacon for You. May our light shine brightly for all to see but may we never stand in the limelight but shine only for Your glory! Amen.
Nov 5th, 2020, Thurs, 4:33 pm
Worms on the Track
Father, I cannot express often enough how grateful I am for Your love. I don’t deserve it, but it lavished upon me without fail. One of many, many reasons to love You!
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I took this picture as I walked around our high school track last week. We had had a fair amount of rain and there were earthworms all over the track! I tried not to step on them but I’m sure a few got squished.
What I found interesting was that they all seemed to be going from the outside of the track and were making their way to the inside of the track. As I did my laps, I could tell that some were indeed making progress but here’s the thing…unbeknownst to them, their destination was leading them to almost certain death.
They were all traveling from oversaturated earth to what they supposed was more earth (hopefully less saturated!), but it was a dead-end in that our football field consists of artificial turf. There is no earth to be found!
As I continued to walk, I got to thinking, “Without direction, isn’t that what we do as human beings of this earth?” Often, we realize that we are not in the best of spots but when we try to move to more beneficial digs, we often find that we are in worse shape than where we started.
Now I could have stopped and picked up every worm I saw and placed it back in the grassy parameter. Some may have continued to prosper but others would inevitably have returned to their dead-end journey. But my timeframe was not in their favor, so for many, their fate was sealed.
Fortunately, we are in a much better situation than those worms. First of all, every one of us is in Jesus’ timeframe in that once and for all He gave Himself up for our salvation. We have a choice to not be stuck on the track that leads to death. Jesus offers us the option of not going forward with our limited knowledge. Instead, we can be guided by His Spirit every step of every day. Not dead ends but life eternal!
Lord Jesus, may we submit ourselves to your direction for our lives. You see every angle of every situation both in the hear-and-now and far into the future where we only see things in our limited perspective of what is right in front of our noses. Yielding to Your holy guidance is an absolutely no lose circumstance in which to find ourselves. Give us the wisdom and wherewithal to do so. Amen!
The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
….I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 NLT
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
….do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
….and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT
Nov 4th, 2020, Wed, 7:49 pm
What Ifs
Today is a day of utmost importance for us who live in the United States, Father. I would pray for Your Sovereign will to be done. You will have Your way regardless and I place the entirety of my trust in You. Enable me to follow You no matter the outcome. Amen.
Luke 19:39-44 (<<click here to read the passage)
I enjoy historical “what-ifs”. Over the years I’ve read a few things that speculative historians have put forth regarding great events of the past. If this had gone this way or that way, if so-and-so had made this decision instead, and in the midst of it all, we realize that quite often outcomes are not what they could have been. Sometimes minute details had a greater impact on outcomes than anyone ever dreamed (see Don’t Forget the Nails from this past August).
There was a book put out in 2003 entitled, What Ifs? of American History. Here are just a couple of the questions asked in the seventeen essays dealing with counterfactual history regarding the United States.
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- What if the Mayflower had not set sail from England in 1620?
- What if Robert E. Lee had succeeded in destroying the Army of the Potomac?
- What if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor
- What if President Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963?
Interesting things (for some of us) to ponder.
Here’s one more to think about.
- What if instead of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, the Pharisees, and teachers of the Law had embraced Him for who He was?
Jesus wept over the pending fall of Jerusalem in today’s passage – and for inquiring minds, Jerusalem fell to the Romans about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words
“How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.” vs42-44
What if they had recognized it when God visited them?
God is most assuredly Sovereign, and His will will come to fruition. But we must understand, too, that we still have free will. God may know what we will decide but it is still our choice to do so.
If you are not a follower of Jesus, what would your life be like if you were?
If you are a follower of Jesus, but can’t seem to really put all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength into loving Him, what if you did?
Many things in our lives are water under the bridge but our decisions about our relationship with Jesus are never undoable. We can turn around and follow Him absolutely any time we want to…and He will be right there with arms wide open. What if you chose to follow?
Nov 3rd, 2020, Tues, 1:01 pm
What Do You Expect?
It’s a psalm kind of day.
You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
….You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
….O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever! Psalm 30:11-12
Luke 19:28-38 (<<click here to read the passage)
Most people have a vice of some sort, and I would say that for Karen and myself it is that we enjoy eating out. We are not into high-end kinds of places but like different foods and locations.
On occasion, we will try places that others think are just the best. Sometimes, after trying them, we agree and other times we wonder why and both of us concur, “We’ll not be coming back here!” We have certain expectations that meet our personal criteria and no matter the reputation of wherever it is, if they don’t meet our expectations, they don’t become a place that we would recommend or return to.
The incident in today’s passage is noted in all four Gospels. We know it as Jesus’ Triumphal Entry. Interestingly enough it is just overflowing with expectations. But it would also be the pivotal point in Jesus’ life and ministry.
Anybody that had an inkling of what had been going on in Israel for the past 3 years or so, regarding Jesus, had come to believe that He was the Messiah of their hopes and dreams. No longer would they have to live under the heavy hand of Rome. The Kingdom of Israel would be restored. Their liberation was at hand!
And Jesus seemed to confirm their expectations when He specifically instructed two of His disciples to bring Him a young donkey…that no one has ever ridden. v30 That alone was a fulfillment of an ancient proclamation of the prophet Zechariah
“Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey – riding on a donkey’s colt.” Zechariah 9:9 NLT
It was all very intentional on Jesus’ part but where things pivoted was when they found out the King He was, wasn’t the king they had expected.
What are my expectations, Jesus? I’ve been taught all kinds of things. I have believed all kinds of things. But what is reality? What would You have to say about all I hold fast to? Are those things true…or false? Are they things I want to believe because I’ve always believed them? Or am I willing to let them go so as to know the real You…the true You? And in so doing my life will be forever changed! Your expectations become my expectations…and the journey can truly begin!
Nov 2nd, 2020, Mon, 4:35 pm
High Priority
Even amongst all the craziness, this year has flown by! But, Father, not one minute of it caught You unaware. You have been in control and with us all along! Praise Your holy name!
Luke 19:11-27 (<<click here to read the passage)
I am familiar with the 80/20 rule but never really knew that it is based on what is known as the Pareto principle. This principle is attributed to Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who came up with the concept way back in 1896.
I thought it pertained to 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. That may factor into the concept to some degree but at its core, the overall principle deals with how things get done.
Say that we have a list of things that need doing. If we looked at our list honestly, we’d acknowledge that some things should be a higher priority than others. Where we run into trouble is putting off the most important things because they are more difficult. Instead, we spend our time doing the things that are easier to accomplish but in the whole scope of things they are not very important and have very little impact on how we move forward. Interestingly enough, more times than naught, it breaks down to 20% of those things needing to be a priority and the other 80% really aren’t that important in the scheme of things.
In my years at Kohl’s, this concept was fleshed out many times over. We had numerous associates who could busy themselves (and I use that phrase very loosely) for an entire shift and accomplish very little. Other associates – and these were much fewer in number – were able to knock out all kinds of projects on their shift because they were able to identify important tasks, regardless of difficulty, and got them done.
As followers of Christ, it is vitally important that we identify things of high priority and take action to see those to completion. Our problem is those things are more difficult and it’s much easier to fiddle around doing little piddly things that are really not that important in the big picture of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus commanded his disciples (and that includes us!) in Matthew 28:19-20a,
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you… AMP
That’s what Jesus’ parable in today’s verses is talking about. He has given us all the tools we need to accomplish the task at hand – not just some of us…all of us. And as His followers, we must wisely use the time and resources we’ve been given. He is coming back and even if we are called home before His return, we will be held accountable for how we handled our share of the “silver” given to each of us.
May our goal be to here our King say,
“Well done! You are a good servant. You have been faithful…” Luke 19:17a NLT
Nov 1st, 2020, Sun, 7:51 pm